New Robert the Bruce film not Scottish enough to win backing of Creative Scotland

Angus Macfadeyn will launch his new Robert the Bruce movie at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on Sunday.

Officials ruled out supporting Glasgow-born actor Angus Macfadyen’s new movie – despite ploughing £1 million into the Netflix movie Outlaw King, which saw Hollywood star Chris Pine play the iconic warrior.

Macfadyen’s film did not meet enough funding criteria to merit support from Creative as it was regarded as a mainly American production.

Most of Robert the Bruce, which was made by Australian director Richie Gray, ended up being filmed in Montana in the US, with only a handful of Scottish locations in the Highlands featured, including Glencoe, the Isle of Skye and Eilean Donan Castle.

Speaking ahead of its world premiere on Sunday, Macfadyen said: “It was difficult finding extra funds to shoot there. The investor had to kick in more money for that. We didn’t get any support from Creative Scotland or anything like that, which was a bit of a disappointment.

“I don’t know if the Netflix people needed the million bucks, or quid, or whatever it was.”

Gray previously told The Scotsman that around 70 per cent of Robert the Bruce had to be filmed in Montana because of the "scary" costs of shooting in Scotland.

He added: "Because of the time constraints we had to get the film made and the connections we had in the United States it seemed to make sense from the start to film it in Montana rather than start afresh in Scotland. We did exterior filming every day. There isn’t a single studio shot in the movie.

“I’d have loved to have shot the whole film in Scotland but it would have been too scary. We had existing relationships with investors, cast and crew."

A spokeswoman for Creative Scotland said: "In this instance the production didn’t fulfil the full criteria set out in our published funding guidelines."