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 :)