The Mearns landscape will play a starring role as one of Scotland’s most lauded novels is brought to life.
And it is hoped that a flood of tourists will follow after Sunset Song, an adaptation of the classic novel, is shown on the big screen for the first time.
Author Lewis Grassic Gibbon lived in the Howe of Mearns and his upbringing there had a profound influence on his later writings. Plans to transform the text into a movie have been in the pipeline for around 15 years – but filming has only recently got under way.
A number of scenes have already been shot in New Zealand.
However, literary and movie enthusiasts in the north-east won’t have too long to wait before the cameras start rolling here.
The church at Arbuthnott, where the author is buried, is among the locations being filmed.
Isabella Williamson, manager of the Grassic Gibbon Centre, said she was delighted that filming had begun – and hoped the centre would benefit from the extra attention.
“I am so pleased that at long last the filming is going ahead. There will be some filming in the Mearns, but I am not sure quite how much. I would imagine that as long as it has Sunset Song and Grassic Gibbon in the title, then it will help us quite considerably,” she said. “We have had some contact with people regarding the filming, as we understand it will be nearby, but not in any direct way. It is really good news that it is finally happening.”
The film is being created by Dundee-based producer Bob Last, who has joined Liverpool-born director Terence Davies for the project.
Model turned actress Agyness Deyn will play the lead character of Chris Guthrie – a poverty-stricken girl.
The novel, the first in the author’s A Scots Quair trilogy, tells the tale of her struggles growing up with a dysfunctional family in a farming community in the Mearns.
Ms Williamson added: “We heard that they hope to have it finished and put it on at a film festival in Canada in the autumn. The Mearns countryside is an integral part of the novel. It will be lovely to see it brought to life.
“We are delighted that it is happening now and we hope that the film does justice to Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s life.”
Published in 1932, Sunset Song was named the best Scottish book of all time at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2005.