Ewan
McGregor looks set to return to film making
in Scotland in a new project based on the Scottish
writer Alexander Trocchi.
McGregor looks certain to star in the new film,
named Young Adam, after one of Trocchi’s
novels.
Trocchi, who has been variously described as
a pornographer, junkie, poet, philosopher and
eccentric, died in 1984. He was considered a
leading figure in the post-war avant-garde movement.
Young
Adam, his first novel, deals with a drifter
who becomes obsessed with the corpse of a woman
he finds floating in a canal somewhere between
Glasgow and Edinburgh. When the book was republished
recently it was described as "a lost gem of
world literature".
The
film is to be directed by the emerging Scots
director David McKenzie, who also has been named
in a joint venture between Scottish Screen and
the US-based company Regent Entertainment.
They
will produce McKenzie’s The Last Great
Wilderness, a road movie about two men on
the run. It is the first in a series of films
on which Scottish Screen and Regent aim to collaborate.
Brassed
Off Band Call
Meanwhile,
members of Scotland’s last remaining colliery
band are looking to Ewan McGregor to help them
in their bid for survival.
Buckhaven
and Methil Miners Brass Band in Fife - the last
remaining colliery band in Scotland - has appealed
for new members in a bid to "keep alive the
tradition". They say the band’s current
situation is similar to the storyline of the
film Brassed Off, in which McGregor plays
a bandsman trying to save a colliery band in
Yorkshire from closure.
Jim
Hyslop, chairman of the Buckhaven band, said
that McGregor would be sympathetic to their
plight because he attended nearby Kirkcaldy
College on his road to stardom and knew the
former Fife pitlands well.
Mr
Hyslop, who joined the band in 1962, said: "Brassed
Off - we all know the film, we have all
been there, we went through all that and most
of it was true.
"Ewan
McGregor went to college here and knows this
area well. If he can give us any help, it would
be appreciated, the more help we can get the
better."
In
Brassed Off , the band from Yorkshire
survived despite the widespread closures of
pits.
McGregor
Storms Music Charts
Scottish
star Ewan McGregor’s latest performance
is a surefire hit with Billboard Album Chart,
where his songs from the forthcoming film Moulin
Rouge come in at highest new entry, ahead
of U2 and Jennifer Lopez.
Critics
have said the film, which co-stars Nicole Kidman,
is one of the best musicals for years, after
its Cannes preview.
The
film is set in Montmartre in the 1890’s
and features a number of songs performed by
McGregor and Kidman.
Two
songs by McGregor —one a solo of Elton
John’s Your Song- have catapulted
the film’s soundtrack to number 5 in the
chart.
It
is McGregor’s second musical role on screen,
after his surprising singing debut in Velvet
Goldmine. One American writer said last
week: "The purity of Ewan’s voice
cuts through the clamour like hot honey through
ice."
Meanwhile
Crieff’s biggest movie star has plans to
return to his native Perthshire to be Chieftain
at this year’s Highland Gathering. He’ll
arrive with his wife Eve in August especially
for the event.
McGregor
said this week: "I’m delighted and
honoured to be asked and I’m very much
looking forward to coming home again."
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