When the walking dead came to Culross

Sunday 12 June 2011

QUAINT little Culross on the Fife coast hardly brings to mind images of limb-munching, brain-shooting and the walking dead – but this summer the cobbled village is to become the setting for Scotland's first zombie movie, starring Dame Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen.

Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen and Gillian Anderson will star in The Curse of the Buxom Strumpet, to be shot in Culross

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EXCLUSIVE By Brian Pendreigh

Dench, who has become something of a national treasure thanks to her roles as Queen Victoria, Elizabeth and the head of MI6 in the Bond movies, will helm a zombie film like no other. For The Curse of the Buxom Strumpet, set in the 18th century, is a weird hybrid of Jane Austen and Night of the Living Dead.

The 76-year-old will play Mrs Halfpint, the local landlady. Culross will double as the town Upper Trollop. The movie has a budget of £2 million and begins shooting in Fife later this year.Dench joins a distinguished cast that also includes The X-Files star Gillian Anderson, Mark Williams, star of The Fast Show and Harry Potter movies, and McKellen, who is the narrator and has already shot his scenes, before going off to New Zealand for The Hobbit.The Curse of the Buxom Strumpet is based on a 20-minute short film called E’gad Zombies, in which the hero William Filthe is an impoverished poet who is in love with the disdainful Vanity Banks. In his quest to win her over, he faces not just her indifference, but also the outbreak of a deadly virus in the town. McKellen has been a passionate supporter and was also in the short. Matthew Butler, the film’s director and co-writer, said: “The story for the feature centres around a small harbour town where an illness quickly sweeps through its inhabitants creating ‘monsters’ out of them. “Our band – of what are really our version of 18th-century theatrical characters – have to escape the town and board a ship to France to safety … Mrs Halfpint is one of the good guys. She’s very much a ‘Mrs Malaprop’ type and one of those characters hopefully people can’t help loving.”The short was filmed in Oxfordshire. But the film-makers had very specific demands for the feature film version. They needed a small, historic coastal town or village, plus a big private house and ready access to a skilled local film crew. It is a very tight budget for a period film and they want all their locations to be a close as possible. Culross will have a starring role in the film thanks to its picturesque streets and whitewashed buildings. It is promoted as a “time warp” by the National Trust of Scotland which has played a major role in the preservation of local historic buildings, including the 16th-century Culross Palace, and the Town House and jail. “Culross and the surrounding areas are just perfect and add to that slightly fairy tale feel of the film,” said Butler, who is just back from the Cannes Film Festival, where he was meeting backers, sales agents and distributors. “A focal point in the town (of Upper Trollop) is Fortitude Towers, which we are still on the lookout for. But as Scotland and that area are full of perfect places it shouldn’t be hard.”It is not the first time Dench will have filmed in Scotland. She was here in the mid-1990s for a project that was originally intended as a television drama, but turned out to be a hit in cinemas around the world. Mrs Brown, which co-starred Billy Connolly, secured her a Bafta award and an Oscar nomination for her performance as Victoria. She went on to become an even bigger star, at a time in life when most actresses have settled into retirement.She won an Oscar for what was little more than a cameo as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love and subsequently picked up another four Oscar nominations. She also has a small role in the new Pirates of the Caribbean film, On Stranger Tides. Films that mix horror and comedy have proven popular both in the cinema and on television. Simon Pegg had a big hit with Shaun of the Dead in 2004 and zombie comedies, like Zombieland, even have their own generic name now – “zomcoms”, a spin on the term for romantic comedies. Reviewing the original short E’Gad Zombies, one online reviewer said: “It is a near perfect zombie movie … and I can’t wait for the feature.” The trailer for the short is on YouTube where it has excited intense interest and comments include “brilliant”, “fabulous” and “awesome”.

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When the walking dead came to Culross

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