Actor Gerard Butler has been appointed as the Glasgow Film Office’s first Film Ambassador. The Scottish born star of The Ugly Truth and Law Abiding Citizen will serve an initial two-year term.
Butler will use his celebrity to draw attention to Glasgow as a viable production base. Butler has already put his commitment into practice by bringing the UK premiere of Law Abiding Citizen to Glasgow in November.
Butler began his screen career with a role in Mrs Brown and cites the Scottish drama Dear Frankie as one of the best experiences of his career.
“Glasgow is a great place to make movies, ” he says. ” You can shoot anything here from urban and contemporary to rural and period. The crews are fantastic and it is an easy city to get around rather than spending the endless hours in traffic when you make movies elsewhere.”
The appointment of Butler is part of a bid to re-assert Glasgow ‘s status as a film-friendly city. The Glasgow Film Office has enlisted public and private organisations across the city to become signatories to the Glasgow Film Partnership offering co-operation and flexibility in everything from closing areas off for filming to funding location recce trips to the city and surrounding areas.
Notable productions to shoot in the city include Terence Davies House Of Mirth, Andrea Arnold’s Red Road, Louis Letterier’s Danny The Dog and Peter Mullan’s forthcoming Neds. In 2009 Film City Glasgow has also served as the production base for Kevin Macdonald’s The Eagle Of The Ninth and David Mackenzie’s The Last Word.
Butler is currently developing a number of projects for his production company Evil Twins but the one most likely to bring him back to Scotland is Burns, a long-waited account of Robert Burns life that has Vadim Jean attached to direct.
“We are taking another shot at the script. We are trying to make it a lot more fun and romantic and more commercial,” Butler reveals.
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