Nessie hunter’s 30-year vigil set to be turned into Hollywood movie
FOR more than a quarter of a century, he has scanned the waters of Loch Ness for evidence of its fabled monster.
Now Steve Feltham’s obsession with finding Nessie is set to be made into a Hollywood film.
A production company owned by Alien director Ridley Scott is planning a movie about the 55-year-old monster hunter after a director ‘fell in love’ with his story.
Mr Feltham’s fascination with the loch began during a holiday in 1970.
In 1991, he gave up his house and job in the family burglar alarm company in Dorset to pursue his dream. He settled at the foreshore of the village of Dores, where he keeps watch while building model Nessies – his only source of funding.
Recently, film director Alexander Farrell, who is part of the RSA production company which Ridley Scott co-created for advertising commercials, stumbled on Mr Feltham’s remarkable story while browsing the internet.
He said he immediately saw him as an ‘Indiana Jones’ type character who was ‘perfect’ for a sevenminute advert he was making for computer hard drive companies Lacie and Seagate.
This week Mr Feltham has been filmed climbing rock faces, cycling down mountains during a storm and scaling peaks.
Mr Farrell, 30, said: ‘I was interested in a story that was unique and in Steve Feltham I’ve found it. The theme is very much “nothing is impossible – dream big”. It’s what’s in the mind, in the heart and in people’s dreams – it’s not what’s in the loch... or not.
‘I believe in the importance of the Loch Ness Monster – if it’s there, who knows? Steve represents the imagination of all of us – he’s an Indiana Jones.’
Mr Farrell, whose photographic work has appeared in museums such as the Guggenheim in New York and the Natural History museum in London, added: ‘I’m going to spend next year working on writing a film about Steve.
‘He has more tenacity and passion than all of us put together. I have fallen in love with Steve Feltham and this is just the beginning.’
Mr Feltham said: ‘I’ve never met anybody like Alexander. He’s a really lovable guy, but very focused and driven.
‘What he’s made me do I would never have believed. All the locations are down the south side of the loch which for me is the best place in the world.
‘I have a fear of heights but I’ve been climbing mountains – some of the stuff has made me feel like Indiana Jones.
‘I said all I wanted for doing this was an old wooden rowing boat and a walk-on part as an extra. Little did I realise I may have a bigger part in a future film as its subject. This is the next best thing to seeing Nessie.’
But Mr Feltham admitted he had so far failed to convince his partner Hilary, 50, of Nessie’s existence. He said: ‘If I can’t convince her, who can I convince?’