A movie by a BAFTA-winning director and starring a slew of stars, including James Bond actress Gemma Arterton, is switching filming away from Scotland after it failed to secure arts funding.
Scottish director David Blair had hoped to film Storm Witch in Scotland, depicting the tyranny and fear that pervaded the country during the 17th century witch trials.
A roster of high-profile stars, including Arterton, Trainspotting and Grey’s Anatomy star Kevin McKidd, and Game of Thrones star Kate Dickie have all agreed to be in it.
However, the movie, which is expected to cost around £5.5million, will now be filmed elsewhere after it failed to secure cash from Screen Scotland.
Producer Alice de Sousa said the team had hoped to ultimately secure as much as £500,000 of funding from Screen Scotland but did not even manage to get initial development funding.
She said: ‘Having done the recces and spent a year going down this avenue it was quite a blow.
‘It speaks to the quality of the script and David’s reputation that the cast have stayed attached to the project.’
Set in the 17th century, Storm Witch centres on a small coastal community whose villagers become suspicious of a ‘remarkable but mysterious’ woman called Morag (played by Arterton), who is said to be ‘uniquely connected to the nature’.
Gemma Arterton has been lined up to play the lead character Morag in the film
BAFTA-winning director David Blair had hoped to film in Scotland but will now go elsewhere
Grey’s Anatomy and Trainspotting star Kevin McKidd is also lined up for the film
The villagers are said to be consumed by the daily struggle for survival ‘from an inclement sea’ and pushed to the edge of the land by merciless feudal landowners.
However, the development of a dangerous love triangle, the societal pressures on women as well as the superstition and religious fervour of the time combine with terrible consequences that threaten to tear the community apart.
Ms de Sousa said scriptwriter Tristan de Vere Cole’ spent a lot of time trying to make the film ‘authentically Scottish’ and that filming would have seen a ‘significant amount of money’ spent in Scotland.
And while she is keen to highlight that Screen Scotland is not alone in what she feels is a lack of transparency, she believes there should be more feedback for projects when they fail to secure funding.
She said: ‘There’s a lack of transparency on how decisions are made and that’s wrong because ultimately this is taxpayers’ money.
‘When I asked for feedback in writing, we never got it.’
She added: ‘We didn’t go in asking for £500,000. We asked for development money to be able to employ Scottish crews to get to the point where we could make an application for film funding.
‘It was to do more recces, do storyboards, to do a director-level location scout.
Kate Dickie, who starred in Hollywood film Prometheus as well as global hit TV show Game of Thrones is another member of the stellar Scottish cast lined up for Storm Witch
The film’s producer Alice de Sousa said scriptwriter Tristan de Vere Cole had ‘spent a lot of time trying to make the film ‘authentically Scottish’ and that the plan was to film there
‘For me, it was important to find out because if we didn’t get development funding, I thought we’re probably not going to get film funding.
‘So when I asked “Does that also mean we will not be funded for production” I got told “no”, but again that was verbal, I never had anything in writing.’
Mr Blair, who said he has never managed to secure funding from Screen Scotland, said: ‘To me, a three or four page response should be compulsory.’
He added: ‘ If you have doubts about a script, why not invite the creator in to discuss what he sees from the words, what he sees from the page?’
Ms de Sousa is due to attend the Cannes Film Festival this week to secure the rest of the funding needed for the movie, which she said already has a significant sum from a Canadian backer.
The prospect of the upcoming film is one that excites Mr Blair.
Sharing his thoughts on it, he said: ‘On a first read, I was immediately attracted to the emotional and lyrical themes that, as well as telling of the past, laid down a sobering marker for the present.’
Screen Scotland is part of public arts body Creative Scotland, which faced fierce criticism last year after it emerged it had awarded almost £85,000 to an arts project paying people to perform extreme sex acts.
Funding for the Rein project was eventually withdrawn following a backlash.
Creative Scotland claimed the application for Rein had not made it clear live sex acts would be featured – despite the inclusion of STI testing for actors and mention of ‘genital contact’.
Touching on the furore, Mr Blair said: ‘You just think “What kind of homework went into that?”. It was absolute madness.’
A Screen Scotland spokesperson said it is currently working with Scotland-based writers, directors or producers to develop over 40 new feature films and has supported 15 feature film projects from Scotland-based writers, directors, or producers into production in the last three years.
A spokesman added: ‘All applications for funding are evaluated based on our published criteria.
‘Unfortunately, not all projects qualify, resulting in some unsuccessful applications. While we don’t discuss individual cases publicly, we do understand the disappointment this may cause, and all unsuccessful applicants are offered the opportunity to discuss feedback with the Screen Scotland team.’
