From the Heart of Luci: Scottish Screen Feature with Colin Kennedy

I know I often prattle on a ridiculous amount, often in fairly overboard ridiculous fashion, about things I care about, things that appeal or whatever including certain actors certainly Sigma, and most especially, the work of Colin Kennedy. Some things can be ridiculous yes, but sometimes there is a sweet and wonderful truth behind them. Long time readers will well know that Colin has written and directed a short film that is getting rave reviews and doing well on the festival scene. In their final issue, Roughcuts from Scottish Screen contains a feature on I LOVE LUCI, written by Colin. I dont need to coo or ramble on or give much insight save to say sometimes it's really true how the smallest things in life can make the biggest difference. A simple note of keep your chin up, or hey thanks for this, or even when simply watching life go by. Once in a while you can see light even in the most serious of settings, even finding a story which ordinarily might be serious and perhap ridiculous and finding the love and light and laughter within. At this link (PDF download available as well) or here you can read for yourselves how Colin saw the heart and humor to bring Luci to life and most of all, the heart to carry through. Thanks for sharing this with us Colin!

Jamie Sives: In New Trailer for "Wonderful Afterlife," "Clash of Titans" Video

At freakin last lol, you can see Jamie Sives in several new pieces of movie marketing this week including the recently released new trailer for Gurinder Chadha's "It's a Wonderful Afterlife," where Jamie has actual lines and everything YAY!




Plus as a fun (and frankly rather amusing) bonus, you can see some of the b-roll from Clash of the Titans showing Jamie joking around with star Sam Worthington. Jamie appears to not be much of a fan of his leather skirt/kilt thing lol, I LOVE YOU JAMIE :))))

Spark of Victory for David Mackenzie and Company

Many of us feel that director David Mackenzie has a definite spark of creativity, and Creative Scotland agrees. As a follow to the news last month, The Herald reports that filmmaker David Mackenzie, along with composer/musician Raymond MacDonald and visual artist Martin Boyce are among the winners who will share the £500,000 Vital Spark awards where the three will be joining together to experiment in new forms and produce a work that will adapt to gallery, concert hall and cinema spaces. No details of what this may exactly encompass available as of yet, but these are three leading and very exciting figures in the creative world flourishing in Scotland and we eagerly look forward to see what they have in store for us. Congratulations David!

Buzz Continues for David Mackenzie's Last Word and Cannes

With the change of seasons comes fresh rumor and speculation regarding the approaching Cannes Film Festival, with mentions again of David Mackenzie's "The Last Word," starring Ewan McGregor and Eva Green. The newest Sigma Films production, on many of the years most anticipated lists, has been mentioned before about a possible screening at the vaunted film festival in France, with the Herald today also citing the possible appearance of three Scottish films including Last Word as well as the superb Peter Mullan and his new film Neds as well as Kevin MacDonald's Eagle of the Ninth. Full quotage including comments from a rep from Sigma are as follows:

Across the globe film-makers will spend the next month finishing movies in the hope of being selected for Cannes. The trio of Scottish films are all in post-production. Probably the tightest turnaround will be for The Last Word. A “story about two people who fall in love just as the world starts falling apart”, it is set in a city where a pandemic is causing people to lose their senses. The movie was filmed in Glasgow, co-produced with Scotland’s Sigma Films, and was supported by Scottish Screen.

When contacted, Sigma Films staff were cautious about aiming for a berth at Cannes. They have just finished the editing process.“There is a long way to go,” said a spokesman. “Whether or not we’re going to be there is not something we are working towards. We are working towards finishing the film. It’s nice that people think we may appear in Cannes, but we won’t know until the next four weeks what is going to happen.”

Ewan McGregor and David Mackenzie have pedigree in Cannes together. Their last collaboration Young Adam, a tale of grimy sex and betrayal on the Clyde, was an official selection in 2003...

“We are absolutely delighted that three Scottish films, two supported by Scottish Screen, are being talked about for Cannes,” said Carole Sheridan, head of talent and creativity.“These are great films by fantastic film-makers. They all deserve to be there and we wish them all very good luck. This could indeed be one of the best years yet for Scottish films.“It is an indication of the flourishing and maturing film industry in Scotland that our films are increasing their overseas presence.”

Stay tuned, more on this possible inclusion at Cannes as we get it!

New Photos of Jamie Sives, JJ Feild

I interrupt this blog to coo. and celebrate. for many reasons, not the least of which are NEW photos of the wonderful Scottish actor Jamie Sives including two with his good friend and fellow actor, JJ Feild. Added today on his official IMDB page, you can behold some of the goodness below
AWESOME PRESENT JAMIE THANK YOU SO MUCH! xoxoxox



Jamie, JJ
Southbank, London, 2010
Jamie Sives, JJ Feild, 2009








On a city painting is a boxer and a fighter by his trade, Jamie is standing he is standing and the man still remains.... (Leith, 2006)




<-------Jamie, Tremblay-en-France, 2009
On the red carpet for premiere of "Triage"

See Ewan McGregor and Eva Green in "Last Word" This Weekend for Test Screening

Huge News today of a great opportunity to be the very first to see a special test screening of David Mackenzie's newest film "Last Word" starring Ewan McGregor and Eva Green THIS WEEKEND ON SATURDAY MARCH 13 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Sigma Films are holding a very special screening and are looking for some very lucky folk to come and WATCH IT FOR FREE this Saturday, 13th March. In order to take part, click here at this link, and note at the end you will be asked to fill out a very short questionaire about the film. Tickets are First Come, First Served so be sure to act fast! Feel free to bring a friend, TWEET THE NEWS, Post it on Facebook, Bebo wherever you want, but remember you must register here quickly. GOOD LUCK AND ENJOY! :)))


'Last Word' stars Ewan McGregor and Eva Green as a couple who begin to fall in love as the world begins to fall apart. For more on the filming of "Last Word" be sure to check out these previous reports and photos.

First Look: Jamie Sives in "Clash of the Titans," New Clip from Valhalla

Thanks ever so much to those who sent confirmation: Official! First Look at Scottish actor Jamie Sives in the upcoming Clash of the Titans.



As reported previously, Jamie appears in Clash as "Commander" and you can see the high quality video of this on the official website for the film, here or download HD from Moviefone here. Opens April 2nd (3d to boot!)


On a related note, there is a new clip online of Jamie in Valhalla Rising. As confirmed on the official FB page, the film will open April 30 in US, but the DVD is due out before that. There are multiple copies of the DVD all over the net of course (same for Triage which is also already on DVD in several places now apparently in Russia) I have a shameful confession to make. This lost weekend, prompted by the consummation of an entire bottle of vodka, I watched one streaming (yes streaming live on the net) of VH. Dubbed in Greek. Yes. If the film was already vague enough, try watching it drunk as fuck in another language, esp where tis wretched and badly done so you get background actors still speaking with their Scots accent and badly synched Greek! I have no idea what the hell I just watched, but I wont be seeing this in theatres Im afraid although there is sooo much Jamie-and will just wait to legally buy the english DVD and try again. sober. lol. On the bright side, here is a legally released clip with Jamie and his co-star from Wilbur and Clash, the ever fabulous Mads Mikkelsen

*I should point out that these streaming videos of both films are WRONG and very hurtful for the entire cast and crew. I do not advocate this in any shape or manner and damm straight should not have watched it, but I was feeling sad and low and so I did. no excuse and it was wrong. and still most offended at the crap bs marketing being done to try and hook US audiences to go see VH which will backfire terribly but I digress.

Video: Film and Glasgow for the Future

Recently there have been several tidbits of news regarding the film industry in Scotland, notably the growing importance of Glasgow as a centre for the industry. Following on the heels of the much hyped Gerry Butler as Ambassador for the GFO, but with little detail on what exactly this actually meant and what would tangibly be done, it seems last week the Evening Times gave us a glimpse of the future. The future, one year ahead that is as the paper stated "‘Glasgow: Cinema City’ project, is currently being developed by the organisers of Glasgow Film Festival and will be launched at next year’s event.It will promote the city’s calendar of film events and historic movie links and sell Glasgow to visitors as “a city in love with the silver screen”.VisitScotland regional director David Adams McGilp said: “The Cinema City project is an inspired idea, uniting Glasgow’s heritage as a film-going city with its more recent reputation for cultural richness and its success establishing a popular, audience-focused film festival. We are delighted to support it.”

While we may have to wait a year to see all of this put into motion, in the meantime promotions are out there right now, including the most recent brochure from Scottish Screen which highlights many of the wonderful facilities Glasgow has to offer for filmmakers, including FILM CITY GLASGOW. Founded by the superb and Sigma Films' own Gillian Berrie, for those who have not yet seen this video, you can hear straight from Tiernan Kelly, head man at FCG here :)))



Also of interest is this clip from one of the occupants at FCG, Savalas Sound which has done so much work on Sigma Films among others.


While waiting a whole year to see this campaign begin in earnest, it's been quite encouraging to see David Mackenzie's Last Word hyped a bit of late. Many publications and blogs (including Screen Daily etc) are mentioning Last Word as a candidate for Cannes. While I personally think its a great fit, I also hope it gets to screen at Edinburgh this year too, but more importantly I just want it to sell and show on screens in the UK , US and well EVERYWHERE lol :D Poor Ewan, who has recently concluded his latest gauntlet for the ghost, was asked by a few actual thinking journalists about other films including Last Word, one reply which went as follows:

It was also nice working with David MacKenzie last year in Scotland on The Last Word, which was really low budget. Then I came back to L.A. and made a film with Mike Mills called Beginners, and that was super, super low budget. Those two films were in a way as rewarding as anything I’ve ever done. Sometimes, because there’s no budget, your filmmaking has to become much cleverer because you can’t spend a day shooting a scene from every angle. You have to shoot five scenes in a day, so the filmmaking becomes much more exciting. You have to get much more creative with the filmmaking, and that ends up on screen. There’s an energy that it produces that I really like. There are no rules to it. I’m really lucky that I’m able to dance in and out of both really.

New Town Killers to Screen at Loch Ness Film Festival

Calling all Nessie Hunters! Here is a chance to see a film about a (twisted) sort of hunting as Richard Jobson's New Town Killers will screen at the Loch Ness Film Festival this September in Scotland. While already out on DVD, this is a nice chance to see this movie starring Sigma's own Alastair Mackenzie along with Dougray Scott which is playing at the festival at the Craigmonie Centre on the 24th of September. More info about the festival can be found at this link. How very cool!

Thanks so much to the Loch Ness Film Festival for the heads up! :)