MOVIE star Mark Wahlberg recently told three Scottish brothers that their rowing heroics deserve to be turned into a Hollywood film.
Ewan, Jamie and Lachlan Maclean are in the midst of completing the fastest ever non-stop and unsupported row from Peru to Sydney, Australia.
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Ted favourite Wahlberg, 54, hopped on a video call with the siblings 54 days into their 9,000 mile journey to raise £1m for clean water projects in Madagascar.
He told them: “This could be a movie. The best films I’ve done are based on true stories – ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
“No way I’d row an ocean, but I’d play one of you guys in a movie.”
If the showbiz favourite sticks to his word and turns their trek into a big budget flick, it wouldn’t be the first time a Scot’s extraordinary story was adapted for the big screen.
Six ‘ordinary’ Scots whose tales hit cinemas:
Chris Lemons – Last Breath
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DIVER Chris, from Edinburgh, nearly died in 2012 when he lay on the bottom of the North Sea with no oxygen for more than 30 minutes after a routine job went disastrously wrong.
The 45-year-old miraculously survived and became a public speaker and dive supervisor – returning to work just weeks after the near tragedy.
Earlier this year he was portrayed by Peaky Blinders favourite Finn Cole, 29, in the movie Last Breath which covers his brush with death.
The survival flick also stars Woody Harrelson, 63, and Simu Liu, 35, as Chris’s real-life colleagues Duncan Allcock and Dave Yuasa.
Graeme Obree – The Flying Scotsman
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CYCLIST Graeme earned his special nickname thanks to his tremendous speed – reminiscent of the famous steam train.
The athlete, from Irvine, Ayrshire, broke numerous world records and hit headlines for his unusual riding positions and homemade bicycle – made from washing machine parts.
His remarkable story – including battles with bipolar disorder and depression – was turned into a movie starring Johnny Lee Miller, 52, Billy Boyd, 56, and Brian Cox, 79.
Released in 2006, The Flying Scotsman kicked off the Edinburgh Film Festival and was distributed worldwide.
Sir James Murray – The Professor and the Madman
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MEL Gibson, 69, is most famous for putting on a kilt and playing William Wallace in Hollywood epic Braveheart.
But he also gave his Scottish accent another go in 2019 when he portrayed Sir James Murray, the editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Murray, from Denholm, Roxburghshire, continued to work on the iconic resource until his death in 1915.
Sean Penn, 64, and Natalie Dormer, 43, joined Gibson in the biopic about Murray’s life and the journey towards the dictionary’s completion in 1928.
Eric Liddell – Chariots of Fire
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Film legend Ian Charleson was tasked with depicting the legendary Edinburgh Olympic athlete.
Liddell, who died aged 43 in 1945, won 400m Gold at the 1924 Games in Paris.
He became ordained as a Congregational minister in 1932 and refused to run on Sundays because of his faith and respect of the Sabbath.
The movie followed Liddell and fellow athlete Harold Abrahams – winning four Oscars, including Best Picture.
Peter Marshall – A Man Called Peter
Released back in 1955, A Man Called Peter was based on the life of preacher Peter Marshall.
From Coatbridge, he moved to the US and served as Chaplain of the United States Senate and pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC.
He died aged 46 in 1949 and his author widow Catherine wrote his biography.
It was adapted for the big screen – with Marshall portrayed by Richard Todd – with a premiere in Glasgow as it was nominated for an Academy Award.
Tom Morris – Tommy’s Honour
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The 2016 film follows the lives of pioneering Scottish golfing champions Old Tom Morris and his son Young Tom Morris.
Directed by Sir Sean Connery’s son Jason, 62, it starred Peter Mullan, 65, and Jack Lowden, 35, in the main roles.
The duo, from St Andrews, Fife, were legends of the sport – each winning four Open Championships.
It opened the 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival and won Best Feature Film at the 2016 British Academy Scotland Awards.
Jimmy Boyle – A Sense of Freedom
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Former Glasgow gangster Boyle, 80, was said to be one of Scotland’s most violent prisoners after being charged with murder.
Whilst locked up in Barlinnie, he turned to art and became a famous sculptor upon his release in 1981.
David Hayman, 77, played Boyle in a 1981 biopic on his life that received a BAFTA nomination for Best Single Play.
The character Nicky Dryden in the 1999 film The Debt Collector is also reportedly loosely based on Boyle.
Tom Nicolson – Geordie
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Geordie was initially viewed as a fictional film when it came out in 1955.
Actor Bill Travers played a Scotsman who became an athlete and competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne.
Decades later it emerged that the character was likely based on Olympian Tom Nicolson – a hammer thrower at two Olympics in the early 1900s.
He later abandoned his athletics career to tend to his land in Tighnabruaich, Argyll and Bute.
