Leading Scots stars to join forces in distillery drama
have been two of Scotland’s leading stage and screen stars for decades. Now Alan Cumming and Brian Cox are to pool their talents on a new film – to play two estranged brothers who are reunited after 40 years.
Glenrothan, which will be set in a fictional distillery town of the same name, will also see Cox make his debut as a director. The story will see the two brothers, who have not spoken since a violent exchange with their father on the day of their mother's funeral, put their differences aside and join forces to try to save the family-owned distillery.
Filming is set to take place in Glasgow and Cumming’s native Perthshire, including Aberfeldy, the town where he grew up, this year after plans to make the movie last year were put on hold. Cox previously cited exhaustion for the delay.
The Succession star, who is nearly 20 years older than Cumming, has been developing Glenrothan with Scottish writer David Ashton, creator of Mclevy, the radio drama series about a fictional 19thcentury Edinburgh detective.
Cumming was speaking ahead of his return to the live stage in Scotland on Saturday when the world tour of his latest cabaret show arrives in Glasgow.
He has recently been in Scotland to film a new season of the American version of The Traitors and a travel show following the iconic Royal Scotsman as it journeys through some of Scotland’s most iconic landthey scapes. Cumming and fellow Scottish actor Forbes Masson will be launching a new book later this year, which will be published to mark the 40th anniversary of Victor & Barry, their cabaret double act, appearing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the first time.
The screenplay for Glenrothan has been co-written by Ashton and award-winning screenwriter Jeff Murphy, who is best known for his work on the TV detective series Hinterland.
Cumming told The Scotsman: “My character has gone away to find a new life in America and the other brother has stayed in Scotland to run the family business. They have a troubled relationship and there is family strife.
Brian [is] directing and playing the somewhat older broth
er. I’ll be growing a beard, which I always do when I feel that I have to look older.
"It has a lovely script, so I’m really looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be filming in and around Aberfeldy, ironically, as I was born there and I’m the patron of the cinema there.”
When Glenrothan was first announced more than two years ago, Cox said: “Glenrothan is my homage to the elements that make Scotland such an extraordinary country, where vibrancy and majesty of the land is expressed through passion and desire – balanced by the Scots’ deeprooted
humour and grasp of the absurd."
Cox described his Glenrothan character as “the boring one" in an interview last year.
He said: “I do boring rather well, actually. He is the one who stayed behind, who ended up holding the baby, so to speak, and the one who left."