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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