Movie by BAFTA-winning director, starring Gemma Arterton, switches filming away from Scotland after arts body rejects funding bid

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'.
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.
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.'

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Daily Mail​

5 hours ago

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• BBC News

The growing popularity of gaming's surprise hit

Shooting, chasing, exploring - hit video games tend to have themes that set the pulse of the world's most popular new titles, however, is about something considerably more sedate - a Garden involves players slowly developing a little patch of virtual land. It's something that, earlier this month, more than 16m people - many of them children - chose to spend their weekend smashed a record for concurrent players set by the somewhat more adrenalin-filled is it about this plant-growing simulation that has got so many people hooked - and could it persuade more people into real-life gardens? How your garden grows Players of Grow a Garden, which features on the online gaming platform, Roblox, do exactly what the title I gave the game a go, I was presented with my own little brown patch of land. To the sounds of some relaxing music, I bought seeds from the local shop, and watched them as they grew, something that continues even when you are offline. Once your garden produces a harvest, you can sell your items. You can also steal from the gardens of others. "It's a really fun game," says eight-year-old Eric Watson Teire, from Edinburgh. He and his 10-year-old brother, Owen, are massive said "a lot" of his friends at school are playing it too. "We can do competitions with each other - like, whose got the most Sheckles [the in-game currency], whose got the best plant."They are not the only ones. According to Roblox, the game has had about 9bn visits since it was created in March. It says 35% of the Garden's players up until now have been aged 13 and under. It's fair to say the premise does not appeal to everyone - there are online forums puzzling at the popularity of a game which its detractors say is "the equivalent of watching paint dry."Eric says the slowness of the game has an appeal. "There's a bit of patience to it," he told the BBC he enjoyed the competitive element of it - but its virtual produce also caught his attention. "Could there be a sugar apple - which is the best plant you can get? Or will there be a carrot, which is the worst?"The gameplay can be sped up if you use Robux, the Roblox currency, which is paid for with real players are very willing to do that. On eBay, it is possible to buy some of the most sought-after items - such as a mutated candy blossom tree or a dragonfly - for hundreds of Roblox is one of the world's largest games platforms. In the early months of this year, it had 97.8m daily vast empire includes some 40 million user-generated games and experiences, and Roblox is the most popular site in the UK for gamers aged eight to 12. While many love the platform, there have also been reports of young people being groomed on it and becoming addicted. Roblox told the BBC earlier this year it was confident in its safety tools, and took the approach that "even one bad incident is one too many". 'A seed of an idea' If people discover they love virtual gardening, might they be encouraged to take up the real thing? Andrew K. Przybylski, a professor of human behaviour and technology at the University of Oxford, said it was possible the game could "plant a seed" that could lead to a passion for plants. But, overall, he's sceptical."It is unlikely that a game like this will encourage real world gardening any more than Super Mario Wonder encourages plumbing," he told the Sarah Mills of Loughborough University has carried out research into the experience of young people and gaming. She highlights a key appeal of Grow a Graden is it is free to play, but the in-game currency is important."This wider landscape of paid reward systems in digital games can impact children and young people's experiences of gaming and financial literacy," she said."It can also cause challenges for many families to navigate, changing the nature of pocket money."Gardening podcaster and BBC presenter Thordis Fridriksson, meanwhile, is hopeful that any interest in gardening is a good thing."Obviously the whole process is pretty different to real life, but it taps into the same thing which makes gardening so addictive, and that's planting seeds and watching your garden grow. "Fingers crossed some of the people who love the game will try growing something at home."Outside the living room in Edinburgh where they play the game is Owen and Eric's actual garden, which both boys help in. "I like gardening - and gardening in Grow a Garden," says asked which one he prefers, he's emphatic: "Grow a Garden!" Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.