PULSES race a little faster at Scottish Screen when the official film agency get a call from a Hollywood producer.

Mel Gibson spent millions making Braveheart and the agency hoped a new Loch Ness Monster film might provide another boost for the Highland economy.

Scottish Screen and its partners provided the producers of The Loch with free hotels, a car and driver, so they could check out possible locations for their adventure thriller, described as Nessie meets Jaws. The film-makers were even given special deals on helicopter and boat trips at Loch Ness.

But now the film company has made it clear it will not be coming back - because it got all the footage it needed during the fact-finding visit a few weeks ago at the expense of taxpayers and local businessmen.

Skyline Partners, a Los Angeles company, contacted Scottish Screen a couple of months ago. The #1m budget was low by US standards, but director Chuck Comisky had an impressive track record as visual effects supervisor on films such as The Addams Family.

Mr Kevin Cowle, head of Scottish Screen's locations department said: ''I thought this could be a big movie, even though it's low budget. We said: 'You should come over and do it here.' I said we would give them a scout/driver for two days, with a vehicle, and we would pay for a hotel.''

But Mr Cowle was in for a shock when he met Mr Comisky and two colleagues at Glasgow Airport. ''I was absolutely gobsmacked by the amount of equipment.''

He expected them to arrive with a normal video camera to record locations, but they brought so much equipment that a second vehicle had to be arranged.

The day after Mr Comisky's team returned to the US, Mr Cowle was told they could not afford to shoot in Scotland after all.

Mr Cowle said that, if this was the case, Scottish Screen and everyone else involved should get a credit on the film. ''They e-mailed us back saying: 'Right, they will go in the credits.'''

He admits to ''a sense of slight admiration'' for the film-makers and hopes the film is a hit and boosts tourism. ''It was a scam, but it didn't cost us a great deal.''

q Low budget British film Croupier, which barely raised a ripple of interest when released in the UK, has hit the jackpot in the US where it has taken #2m at the box office more than two years after it was completed.

Made by Get Carter! director Mike Hodges, it stars Clive Owen, best known as TV's Chancer.