Director says lack of film studio is ‘crippling Scotland’s screen sector’

A Hollywood director has told MSPS the lack of studio facilities in Scotland is “crippling” the country’s film and television sector.

Tommy Gormley, who has worked on Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Wonder Woman, claimed there had been a “cataclysmic failure at every level” to deliver for the industry.

He also suggested Holyrood be given control over rebates for film and TV, saying having a more competitive regime here than the rest of the UK would attract produc- 0 Director Tommy Gormley worked on Wonder Woman tions “in a New York second”. Mr Gormley, who was born in Glasgow and spent seven years in Los Angeles, was giving evidence to MSPS on the Parliament’s culture commit- tee about the Scottish screen sector.

The assistant director, who has also worked on several of the Mission Impossible films, stated: “We haven’t just missed the boat in this country, we’ve missed an entire fleet.

“There is a cataclysmic failure at every level to deliver.

“The fact that production in Scotland is catastrophically low compared to the UK, it’s a disgrace.”

He added: “There’s a great misunderstanding, even in Creative Scotland and Scottish Enterprise, about what film-making involves. It’s a very simple industrial process. It has its own little factory, it needs the factory.”