IRVINE Welsh is said to be “spitting teeth” after Creative Scotland refused to back a movie he wrote about Scottish music mogul Alan McGee.
As well as being written by Welsh and having a Scot as its subject, Trainspotting star Ewen Bremner is lined up for the lead role in Creation Stories.
But the film will not receive funding from Creative Scotland, the public body that supports the arts north of the border, because its director and producers are English.
Instead, the movie is set to be funded by, and filmed in, Wales or Yorkshire.
Creation Stories tells the story of McGee who founded Creation Records and discovered bands such as Oasis and Primal Scream. The movie is being described as “a film about one of the most culturally important British figures in the movie business”.
Gee,
The decision not to fund the project has left Welsh “fuming”, according to its director Nick Moran.
Moran said: “Creative Scotland basically said that since Irvine didn’t live in Scotland anymore he didn’t sound as Scottish.
“Irvine was spitting teeth when he found out. I emailed Creative Scotland back to say, ‘What if we co-produced it with Bay City Rollers and got Nicola Sturgeon to play Alan McGee?'”
He continued: “The movie couldn’t be more Scottish.
“The script is written by Edinburgh’s most famous writer, it’s all about Scotland’s most successful record entrepreneur, who gave the world two of Scotland’s most successful rock bands and it stars Ewen Bremner.”
Moran added: “Irvine was saying he couldn’t be more Scottish if he was in a kilt, playing the bagpipes and had a haggis hanging out his a***.”
One of the producers on the production, Natalie McGough, former manager of rock band Happy Mondays, said: “Irvine was absolutely fuming about it.
“It’s no wonder when you think about what Trainspotting has done for Edinburgh and Scotland.
“We’ll now be applying for funding from Wales and Yorkshire, who don’t have the same funding rules,”
A spokesman for Creative Scotland said the movie didn’t fall within their guidelines for funding.
Creative Scotland later added: “This is an interesting project with potential and the application to our Screen Fund was not turned down because it was ‘not Scottish enough’.
“In line with our published Screen Funding guidance, the original application was assessed as not eligible at that stage as there was no confirmed finance and no confirmed sales and distribution interest.
“We advised the producers that a subsequent application could be considered when the project is at a more advanced stage and that the involvement of an experienced, Scottish based producer could also strengthen that application.”
