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by james macgregor | November 16th, 2001 | contact: james@netribution.co.uk

Executive Puts New Film Studio To Tender

Scottish Enterprise is trying to smoke out companies prepared to build and operate a Scottish film studio. The agency is to call on the handful of companies and individuals who have expressed an interest in operating a Scottish studio to draw up business plans and show how they would make it work commercially.

It has advertised on its website for a consultant to develop a 'tender evaluation process' in which companies will be asked to pitch for government money to build the studio.

Last year Henry McLeish, then enterprise minister, announced £25 million of new money for culture, some of which would go towards building a film studio at Glasgow's Pacific Quay. However, there has been no progress on the idea since then.

Over the past five years there have been a number of competing projects for a Scottish studio. The most advanced is actor James Cosmo's plan for a £5 million complex attached to a William Wallace theme park outside Inverness. Sir Sean Connery had proposed an Edinburgh site, financed by Rangers chairman David Murray and Sony, but that project appears to have been kicked into the long grass.

London Scottish

Among the other potential candidates is a London studio, thought to be Pinewood, which has privately discussed opening a Scottish operation.

The Comedy Unit, makers of the popular BBC Scotland TVshow Chewin' The Fat, ran Scotland's only independent studio until April of this year, when its premises were destroyed by fire. Its Glasgow Television and Film Studio in Maryhill was used for the Hollywood feature House Of Mirth, Gregory's Two Girls and numerous TV shows including Monarch Of The Glen.

The studio, according to Scottish Enterprise, would be designed for small-to-medium-budget British films, in other words productions with budgets of up to £7 million. It could also be used for television shows, particularly those which need to be shot in front of an audience.

A spokeswoman for Scottish Enterprise said the tender process was designed to formalise a number of approaches the agency has received from potential operators.


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