Friday sees the release of The Eagle, a new feature film, partly filmed on location in the Highlands and featuring many locals as extras. The Eagle will be released on 25 March although locals in Achiltibuie are to be treated to a special screening in a mobile cinema.
The film stars up and coming Hollywood beefcake Channing Tatum as well as acting legend Donald Sutherland and Jamie Bell. As well as Achiltibuie, filming took place in Argyll, Stirling and Loch Lomond. The film, directed by Glasgow-born Kevin MacDonald, is based on Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical adventure novel The Eagle of the Ninth. The film recounts the search by a young Roman officer to recover the lost Roman eagle standard of his father’s legion, the Ninth Spanish Legion which disappeared in mysterious circumstances in northern Britain.
Filming in Achiltibuie took place in October 2009, with the main location at Fox Point, Old Dornie, where a Pictish village was constructed. Nearby Achnahaird beach also featured as the location for a thrilling horse chase.
Kevin Macdonald whose previous films include Touching the Void and The Last King of Scotland cast a number of locals and Gaelic speakers as the imagined indigenous people of the time, the Seal people. Due to the small number of Gaelic speakers in Scotland, open auditions were held in Glasgow for speaking roles, with other extras being recruited in auditions held in Ullapool. Whilst Gaelic did not emerge until the 5th century AD and the film is set around the 2nd century AD when people would have spoken a Pictish language, Macdonald says the Seal people are an imagined race gleaned from archaeological clues from sites such as Skara Brae on Orkney and from modern rural communities such as the Innuit in Northern Canada.
VisitScotland is hoping the Hollywood movie will provide a tourism boost to the area. The national tourism agency has identified a recent trend of “Set Jetting”, where visitors go to the locations featured in their favourite films or shows, with around 20 per cent of visitors saying that seeing Scotland in film or on TV was important in their decision to book a Scottish holiday. VisitScotland has partnered with Universal to tap into this trend and will be undertaking joint marketing and public relations with the movie-making giant, to showcase Scotland to potential visitors across the UK and around the world. VisitScotland says the film will provide an opportunity to promote the locations featured, as well as use the theme of the film to highlight the vast range of Roman and Pictish heritage Scotland has to offer.
If you fancy exploring the Achiltibuie area, which offers a great range of walking opportunities for all abililities, check out the routes and information on Walkhighlands.