"Burns" The Feature Film
UPDATE
April 2002

Its been a while since there has been an update on the Robert Burns film, but hopefully this will be the first of many more regular updates.

In the time since you last heard from us, there has been lots of work going on as far as the script is concerned. There has also been a lot of work going on with all the behind the scenes production, and the start of the process of establishing a secure base for the production of the film in Ayrshire itself.

The rights to the Alan Sharp (Rob Roy, Year of Living Dangerously) script, which originally had the working title "Clarinda" is now owned by The Mob Film Co Ltd and not Alloway Productions. The film will no longer be called Clarinda, the working title for the project is now "Burns". The Director is still Vadim Jean (One More Kiss, Real Howard Spitz, Clockwork Mice, Leon The Pig Farmer), who is also producing the film alongside James Cosmo. Both have been involved with the project almost from the start.

"We are approaching a very exciting time for the film" says Jean, the most important thing is to get the best script we can, the hard part is choosing what to leave out. Although the film only covers 6 years of his life, roughly from 1785 to 1791, Burns had such an eventful life that to make it all fit into a film is very hard. Alan has done a superb job, but the big decisions are in what to leave out rather than what to put in!"

There are also many remaining questions over the cast. James Cosmo says "There is a great deal of acting talent in Scotland, and we want to fill as many of the leading roles with local talent as possible. There are several native Scots who could play the great man, but for casting the women in his life we might have to look a little further afield. ".

The production team want to know what fans of the Bard think about the casting, and have established a section on this web site for you to cast your votes. Should it be Ewan McGregor, Robbie Carlisle, Gerard Butler or Dougray Scott! Log on to who should play? and cast your vote.

If you want to be added to the electronic circulation of future mail shots, then please log on to the section mailing lists and leave us your details. We hope to keep you informed on a quarterly basis for now, but more frequently as we get closer to production.