Scottish Screen withdraws grant over budget shortfall.
By Brian Pendreigh

Billy Connolly may be one of Scotland's biggest stars, but his involvement with a low-budget Scottish road movie has failed to convince financial backers to support the project.

Critics acclaimed Alan Warner's novel The Man Who Walks in 2002 and there was considerable press excitement when it was announced that Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh was not only writing a screenplay, but had chosen it for his directorial debut.

The buzz intensified with reports that Connolly, who will be seen on cinema screens all over the world this weekend alongside agents Mulder and Scully in the new $30 million movie X Files: I Want To Believe, would play the title role of a one-eyed eccentric traveller.

Ewen Bremner, who played Spud in Trainspotting and who has appeared in Hollywood blockbusters such as Pearl Harbor, was lined up as the nephew who pursues him across Scotland to avenge the murder of his budgies.

Last summer Scottish Screen, the public body which allocates money to the making of Scottish films, agreed to put up £400,000, a quarter of the £1.6 million budget. And Mark Cousins, the film's Edinburgh-based producer, said it would "definitely" shoot in the spring of this year.

But Cousins and his fellow producers have failed to raise the rest of the money. And Scottish Screen has withdrawn its cash, in line with its rules on time limits.

Cousins attempted to put a brave face on it, denying the project had collapsed. He said they had been only 12% short of completing their budget and stressed they could re-apply to Scottish Screen. But he admitted there was no guarantee of success.

When Scottish Screen awarded the money last year, he said: "All the international funders look for a vote of confidence on your home patch - and this is a great vote of confidence." Without that investment, raising the rest of the cash seems more difficult than ever.

Scottish Screen allocates lottery funds to feature films, but does not hand over money until they go into production. There is a time limit of a year. Scottish Screen confirmed the offer of finance to The Man Who Walks had been withdrawn and the money reallocated.

"The project was not in a position to be progressed at that stage," said a spokeswoman. "Projects we have made awards to are constantly reviewed so that money is not tied up in projects that aren't ready to go ahead."

Only one other feature film has lost its funding in the last six months, but that was a much smaller amount, and The Man Who Walks is highly unusual because of the calibre of those involved.

Cousins said: "It's not a setback there's the same degree of enthusiasm across the whole team, the same enthusiastic response from the markets."

He said Connolly and Bremner were still committed to the film although there is no chance of shooting this year. "This is a really creative film. It's not just a genre picture and to get inventive films funded takes ages."

Jim Hickey, who, like Cousins, is a former director of the Edinburgh Film Festival who has become a producer, said it was difficult to raise money without big names, but he thought Irvine Welsh's involvement should have made The Man Who Walks attractive to investors, irrespective of Connolly's involvement.

Welsh was unavailable for comment.

The Man Who Walks is not the only Welsh-Cousins project that has encountered problems. The Meat Trade, an original screenplay inspired by the case of Burke and Hare, was due to shoot in 2005 with Robert Carlyle and Colin Firth but has been repeatedly postponed.

One Cousins project that is going ahead is a film festival he is organising with actress Tilda Swinton in her home town of Nairn later this month.