New superhero movie

I found an interview with Mark Millar in which he tells about his plans for the new superhero movie entitled "Miracle Park". The film was entirely filmed in Scotland. Some pictures were shot in Glasgow!

Mark started his project in September 2010 and used crew from Glasgow and Edinburgh. Despite famous actors Mark employed people who the audience never seen before.

In his interview (I found it on STV website) Mark says that “The plan with the Scottish movie was that I realised that everything I’d written, even though I’m a Scottish guy from Coatbridge, everything I’d written was set in New York or Los Angeles. I just thought that’s quite weird; normally people will do something that is a wee bit to do with where they came from, so I thought that it was quite odd that I’ve never done that. It’s a lazy shorthand to always set something in America that everybody understands.” (http://entertainment.stv.tv/film/161379-mark-millar-gets-set-to-shoot-epic-scottish-superhero-movie-this-summer/)

I think it's very good idea to film in Scotland. There are thousands (or even millions!) of movies filmed in the USA and it becomes boring! There are many equally interesting towns and places in the world, so why do people always film in New York or Hollywood?

Moreover what I like in Mark’s ideas is that he did his film with unknown actors. This could be a great opportunity for new talents and novice actors to start their careers in the world of cinema. (Again, Hollywood actors create most of today’s cinema…)

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and looking forward to see this film soon.

Peter Mullan

Peter Mullan was born in 1959 in Peterhead, Scotland.

He was interested in film since he was 19. He produced than his first short films.

Next Peter tried to study on the National Film School, however they rejected his application. Peter decided than to become an actor and debuted in the theatre in 1988.

His first leading male role in “My name is Joe” was a real milestone in his career (he played there an alcoholic).

Peter played also in Braveheart, Riff Raff, The Swallow Grave, Fairytale: A True Story and Trainspotting in which he portrayed a drug dealer.

He directed also the film about Scottish teenagers in Glasgow entitled NEDS. Moreover he played there a role of an alcoholic father!

Peter Mullan is a charismatic Scottish actor, who escapes from simple roles in commercial films. In my opinion he is very consistent in what he does and it doesn’t matter if he’s in front or behind the camera. Despite rejecting ‘popular’ cinema his surname is very well-known on the whole world. In his films he presents the real world, doesn’t try to ‘improve’ it and shows things are just the way they are.

Kevin Macdonald

Kevin Macdonald is a Scottish director, actor and screenwriter. He was born in Glasgow in 1967.

Kevin is a grandson of British film maker Emeric Pressburg.

Macdonald’s first film was about his grandfather. At the beginning it was entitled “The Life and Death of the Screenwriter”, however after small changes the title was changed to “The making of an Englishman” (1995).

Kevin created a lot of biographical films such as “Chaplin’s Goliath” (1996), "The Moving World of George Rickey" (1997), "A Brief History of Errol Morris" (2000) and "Being Mick" (2001).

His most successful film was entitled “One day in September”, produced in 1999. It was a documentary film about the murder of Israeli athletes at the Olympic Game in Munich in 1972.  The film’s most important scene is an interview with Jamal Al-Gaszeyem who is the last witness of those events.

Since 1972 Jamal lives in hiding because he believes that Israeli’s government is chasing him for the hijacking.

What’s interesting, the interview with Jamal was recorded in Arabic language. About what was recorded Kevin learned after coming back to London and translating the interview.

The film won the Oscar in 2000 for the best documentary.

In my opinion the director must be really interesting person. Producing only documentary films requires a lot of courage because I think that many people prefer action movies instead of documents. It is harder to create a good documentary than a popular film advertised by movie stars.

I believe that the ‘real cinema’ must be Kevin’s passion.

Valhalla Rising

Valhalla Rising was produced in 2009 and filmed entirely in Scotland.

Glasgow Film Office has supported and invested in this production.

Valhalla Rising tells about the One Eye warrior with a supernatural strength. He was a prisoner of the chief Barde for many years. However one day he and his little friend Are run away and get onto a Vikings’ ship. The One Eye finds out than his real destination.

Valhalla Rising was directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. 

I read that Nicolas prefers natural and realistic cinema, and this is exactly what we see while watching Valhalla Rising. Refn has transferred killing into art. While watching this film we see natural and impressive killing scenes, marvelous landscapes and well-matched actors. Moreover the make ups are really good, thus the actors look like real Vikings. 


I added some videos at the top of the page showing scenes from Valhalla Rising film.


Please enjoy :)

Doomsday

Doomsday is a Sci-Fi movie, partly filmed in Scotland and Glasgow. It tells about “The Reaper Virus” which attacks Scotland. British government tries to stop the plague by separating Scotland and England by a wall. However after 30 years the virus attacks areas beyond the wall. The government sends Special Forces to Scotland. They must find a vaccine which treats the doomsday virus.

I'v seen this movie and in my opinion it is quite interesting, however many movies have already used the idea of virus and they are all telling the same story; [for example “Virus” (Dir: John Bruno, 1999) or “Outbreak” (Dir: Wolfgang Petersen, 1995).] Firstly the film gives a lot of entertainment and fun. Secondly it has really good music.

However the script has many defects and characters’ behavior is sometimes ‘strange’ and pointless. The biggest part of the movie is concentrated around action, looking for food and fighting with each other, thus the actors have little room to maneuver and cannot show their talents. Moreover people who survived the plague look really unusual. They are wearing strange clothes, colors, make-ups and hats. I do not understand why? 

I am not sure if I would recommend this film... It's a quite good action movie, created from several different movies with the same theme. On the other hand it's a bit underdeveloped, sometimes even funny.

NEDS

NEDS (non educated deliquents) is a coming-of-age drama, directed by Peter Mullan, produced in 2011.

Firstly think what does the NEDS term mean…

I found the information that this term appeared for the first time in Scotland around 1960s. It applies to working class youths, who wear casual sport clothes. It is also often connected with hooliganism and criminality. Ned culture is associated with violence, alcohol and drugs.

While reading NEDS terminology, we may immediately get known what the film is going to be about.

In fact it tells about young people and gangs. However when we watch it we don’t see only violence, alcohol and drugs. Film makers present us dramatic story of a young boy, his dreams and believes. We see how the reputation, individuality and sensitivity are being killed by not good teaching system.

Neds film is set in Glasgow in 1970s. Main character – John McGill is a young boy, good student, who wants to go to university, have a good job and perspectives. However when he goes to a secondary school he’s put down a grade because of his brother's reputation. Moreover he’s got an alcoholic father who doesn’t help him at all.

John gives up, and joins a gang.

Starring: 

Connor McCarron as John McGill

Marianna Palka as Beth 

Steven Robertson as Mr Bonetti 

Joe Cassidy as Janitor 

Linda Cuthbert as Mrs Matheson 

Hope Springs

Hope Springs is an 8 part drama produced by Shed Productions for BBC. It was filmed in Glasgow for a couple of days. Few scenes were filmed in the BBC drama studio.

Hope Springs tells about British artist Colin Ware, who discovers that his love and woman of his life Vera, is cheating on him, and wants to get married with other man. Colin has depression. He moves to Hope, small town in New England and meets beautiful Mandy; Colin becomes happy again. Everything is getting better, until the day Amanda moves to Hope. 

The film is quite interesting, I’ve seen it several times. Film makers show beautiful landscapes and places in England. Music used in film gives special mood. However in my opinion it is a standard romantic comedy, not surprising and easy to predict what is going to happen. 

Starring: 

Colin Firth as Colin Ware 

Minnie Driver as Vera 

Heather Graham as Mandy