THE director of a Scottish family business has Hollywood in his sights after seeing stairlifts supplied by his firm feature in blockbuster movie Cloud Atlas, starring Jim Broadbent, Tom Hanks and Halle Berry.
Dundee-based Caltech Lifts said yesterday that it had been asked in August 2011 by Carrie Garner, assistant set director (UK) for Cloud Atlas, to supply two stairlifts as props for a three-day location shoot at Overtoun House, Dunbartonshire.
This location features in the movie as a retirement home in which Oscar winner Jim Broadbent's character, Timothy Cavendish, finds himself trapped after agreeing to hide there while on the run from a gangster.
Caltech said it supplied two Brooks stairlifts to the film company in September 2011, for the garden and a hallway.
The Dundee firm, which supplies and maintains a range of lifts, added that it had removed the batteries for safety because the stairlifts were not to be installed fully or used.
A star-struck Caltech director Andrew Renwick said that he only discovered the extent of his firm's stairlifts' role when he went to his local cinema last weekend with fiancée Suzie Reid.
He added: "I half expected the scenes with them to be cut, but they were clearly in-shot at least twice.
"I almost shouted out I was so proud. It was pretty exciting to see the stairlifts we provided in the film.
"We're hoping this is the start of a new market for us – providing lifts for other movies and TV shoots, or even for the more senior members of the Hollywood A-List. We'd love to be stairlift supplier to the stars."
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