Irvine Welsh movie about Alan McGee rejected for 'not being Scottish enough'

A new movie penned by Irvine Welsh about Scottish indie music mogul Alan McGee has been rejected for a funding application because it’s deemed ‘not Scottish enough’.

The movie, which is also set to star Scottish actor Ewen Bremner in the lead role, will chart the rise of Creation Records, which discovered Scottish bands like Primal Scream and Teenage Fanclub.

But it’s been denied an all-important injection of cash by arts agency Creative Scotland.

The reason given is because Welsh now lives in the US, four of the film’s producers are English, and the director, ‘Lock Stock’ star Nick Moran, is also English.

“The movie couldn’t be more Scottish,” a clearly irate Moran told The Scotsman.

“The script is written by Edinburgh’s most famous writer, it’s all about Scotland’s most successful record entrepreneur, who gave the world two of Scotland’s most successful rock bands, and it stars Ewen Bremner.

“How can it not be Scottish enough? Creative Scotland basically said that since Irvine didn’t live in Scotland any more he didn’t sound as Scottish.

“Irvine was spitting teeth when he found out. I emailed Creative Scotland back to say ‘What if we co-produced it with the Bay City Rollers and got Nicola Sturgeon to play Alan McGee?’.

“Irvine was saying he couldn’t be more Scottish if he was in a kilt, playing the bagpipes and had a haggis hanging out his a***.”

Creative Scotland has funded previous adaptations of Welsh’s works, including giving £300,000 to the production of ‘Filth’, and £500,000 to ‘T2: Trainspotting’.

Producer Nathan McGough added: “Irvine was absolutely fuming about it. It’s no wonder when you think about what Trainspotting has done for Edinburgh and Scotland.

“We’ll now be applying for funding from Wales and Yorkshire, who don’t have the same funding rules.”

A Creative Scotland spokesman told The Scotsman: “This is an interesting project with potential.

“However, in line with our published guidance, the original application was assessed as not eligible as there was no confirmed finance, and sales and distribution interest.

“We advised that a subsequent application could be considered when the project is at a more advanced stage and that the involvement of an experienced, Scottish-based producer would strengthen that application.”

The movie, plans of which were announced at the Cannes Film Festival last year, has Miley Cyrus also attached to play a music journalist opposite Bremner’s McGee.

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