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Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First minister, today pledged his support to the last stage of fund-raising for a new feature film about the life of Robert Burns.
The film, written by Alan Sharp, who wrote Rob Roy, is to be directed by French director Vadim Jean and will star Gerard Butler, the actor from Paisley who is best known for his starring roles in beefcake movies such as 300 and Beowulf.
Butler, currently a hot property in Hollywood, has been attached to the movie for some time but there have been substantial difficulties in raising the finance for it.
Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, has pledged his support to a new feature film on the life of Robert Burns starring Gerard Butler
Now, with investment from Scottish Screen behind it, an ingenious scheme to recruit 250 subscribers to bridge the final funding gap has been launched and principal photography is expected to go ahead later this year in Ayrshire and Edinburgh. The figure of 250 mirrors the 250 subscribers who clubbed together to bring out the first, or Kilmarnock, edition of Robert Burns’ poems in 1786.
Salmond will host a dinner at Edinburgh Castle in May to help raise funds. He announced the fund-raising scheme at the Homecoming Burns Supper in Alloway on Saturday night, the official launch of the Year of Homecoming, just before proposing the health of Robert Burns at the end of the dinner.
[b]Butler said: “Scotland is very proud of Burns. It’s a great honour to be asked to play him. He had the most extraordinary and colourful of lives.â€[/b]
The Supper took place at the Brig o’ Doon House Hotel, close by the Auld Brig o’ Doon, where Burns’ famous character Tam o’ Shanter so nearly met his fate, on the day before Burns Night. Although the menu featured the traditional haggis, neeps and tatties, the form of the evening dispensed with most of the traditional format of various toasts and speeches.
Instead there were a series of dramatic and music performances relating to various aspects of Burns’s life and work, performed by some of Scotland’s leading actors and singers, including Karen Matheson, Siobhan Redmond, Iain Robertson and Sandi Thom.