An adrenaline fuelled, gore-filled action horror film in the tradition of Aliens, The Thing and The Descent, OUTPOST is set in war-torn Eastern Europe, where a band of battle-worn mercenaries undertake a dangerous mission into no-man’s land at the behest of a mysterious businessman.

They set out to locate and secure a disused military bunker, but when they get to their target, they discover a terrifying secret that has lain buried for half a century – and which they’ll have to fight for their lives to survive.

The film was shot at the old Dalbeattie munitions factory site and at forest locations on the Balmaghie Estate near Castle Douglas.

Sony Pictures International now has the rights to the film and it should be released world-wide during 2008.

Gate Television Productions came to the region in May for the filming of A RISK WORTH TAKING, an adaptation of the Robin Pilcher novel of the same name. 

Filming took place for a week at the Lighthouse Pottery on Portpatrick’s South pier where 35 locals were drafted in as extras. 

The House on the Shore near Kirkbean was then transformed into a film set for a month with the John Paul Jones Museum becoming a base for the actors and film crew working on the production. 

A number of other locations around the region were also used in the film including New Abbey and Dumfries.

The film was made for German TV and will be ZDF’s (Germany’s equivalent of BBC1) prime time movie on Christmas day later this year. 

All images courtesy of Graeme Hunter © Gate TV Productions 2007

July 2007 saw the filming of the feature 30 ACRES (working title) from Production Company Synchronicity Films, taking place near Dundrennan. 

They used the Wickerman Festival in Dumfries & Galloway as their public backdrop, and brought key characters to the event with the idea that the festival itself is the main character that brings these people together. 

The final film will be completed and released in 2008.

Wilma and Duncan Finnigan return with a high-spirited comedy about the pretensions of this business we call show.

Luna (John Stewart) wants to be a star, but keeps being unjustly hampered by his lack of talent.

His screenwriter flatmate Trudy (Angela Coates), meanwhile, blames her own repeated failures upon prejudice against the larger lady... Both prove to be sitting ducks for freelance rip-off artist Vic Young.

The scenes around the pitching session were shot in Dumfries with the film receiving its premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2007.

The first feature film in 57 years about Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet, was filmed on location in Dumfries & Galloway and Ayrshire (where the poet was born), made by a Scottish independent film production company, Palmtree Pictures.

The film looks at events later in Burns’ life when he worked as an excise man in Dumfries yet was sympathetic to the French Revolution.

Filming in our region took place at Robert Burns’ house, Drumlanrig Castle and Galloway House near Wigtown. The film was premiered at Ayr on 27 May, and should be released at the beginning of 2005.

For more information on the film, please visit: http://www.deevee.net/redrose/index.html

The town of Dumfries played host to the cast and crew of Magdalene, a film set in 1950s Ireland, which was written and directed by Peter Mullan (whose first film 'Orphans' won eleven international awards).

The filming took place mainly in the Old Covent in Maxwell Street, but filming also went on at Heston House at the Crichton, Closeburn Primary School at Thornhill, Loreburn Primary School in George Street, Dumfries, as well as taking over Moniave for one glorious sunny day.

Many local people worked on the production, either as part of the crew or as extras. The production company, PFP, also took on a number of trainees, one for each department, so that local young people could have a chance to gain professional training and experience on a feature film.

Though the production had been offered money by the Irish Film Board to make the film in Ireland, Peter Mullan was keen to make the film in Scotland.

The Old Covent proved to be an ideal location and though no-one can really tell what the effects of Foot and Mouth might have had on summer visitor numbers, the filming for six weeks had a massive impact on our local economy, with local services and businesses being used, local labour being employed, and a great deal of additional spending going on in pubs and clubs in Dumfries.

The film won the Golden Lion at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, and went on to receive a host of other nominations and ten other awards around the world. The DVD, which contains two short films made by Peter Mullan has been released by Momentum Pictures.

Hollywood legend Robert Duvall came to Scotland in the summer of 1998 to make a feature film about Scottish Football. He starred in the film as Gordon McLeod, the manager of a struggling 2nd Division team whose erstwhile star player Jackie McQuillan (Ally McCoist in his acting debut) is now a philandering, hard drinking has-been who co-incidentally is married to Gordon’s daughter.

During the course of the film, Jackie must pull himself and the team together to give Duvall that once last ‘shot at glory’ to win the cup – or the team will be sold on.

Palmerston Football Club in Dumfries was the location for one of the qualifying rounds with the real Queen Of The South team being thrashed by the visiting fictional 'Knockies'. 7,000 members of the public along with the local Police Pipe Band attended the filming on a Sunday afternoon and got into the spirit of things in directed crowd scenes.

Duvall was on the sidelines dressed in his tweed coat and flat cap looking every bit the downtrodden manager, chewing gum and shouting abuse at his players.

McCoist, much to the crowd’s delight, needed several takes at the actual goal scoring scenes interrupted mainly by the make-up artist running onto the pitch to fix his foundation and powder.

It was a great day out for everyone and a rare chance for members of the public to be involved in the making of a Hollywood feature film. The film was premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in Autumn 2000.

A Scottish feature film, written by Steve Chambers, is the story of Charleen, a rebellious but politically committed young woman who joins a peace protest.

Described as a road movie which turn the A9 into the Scottish Route 66, Hold Back the Night was filmed at a number of different locations in Scotland, including Castle Douglas High Street.

A crew of 30 spent two days filming outside the Post Office.

A TV feature film made for German Television, this was the first 3D film ever made in Scotland.

Spedlins Tower near Lockerbie was used as one of the locations.

This high-budget big-screen adaptation of the cult TV series starred Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, member of the elite Impossible Mission Force, who is forced to turn renegade when the rest of his team are killed on a decoy mission. Thrills, spills and noisy special effects are the order of the day.

Not many people realise that the train stunt, near the end of the film, was filmed just outside Dumfries: in the film, the train is supposed to be heading for the Channel Tunnel, and the countryside would be Kent.

The film makers were looking for a section of straight railway with no overhead cables or bridges, and the Dumfries-Annan is one of a handful of places in the UK that was able to offer this.

In May 1995 the second unit (which consisted of about 100 people) came up to film Tom Cruise's famous train stunt. Using a special camera mounted on the front of the train, they worked for three weeks non-stop in order to achieve the right effect. The film was released in 1996.

Sadly, Tom Cruise didn’t come to Dumfries!

This British film about organised crime was partly filmed on location in Stranraer and Portpatrick. It was given terrible reviews on its release, but it is screened occasionally on late night television.

Norman Wisdom plays a reformed bank robber who is trying to protect his daughter from a gang of criminals.

John Buchan’s classic spy thriller, written in 1915, was originally set in this region, though Alfred Hitchcock’s version, made in 1935, relocated the story to the Scottish Highlands.

Dumfries-born actor John Laurie starred in this version as a jealous crofter who bullies his wife. The 1978 version starred Robert Powell as Richard Hannay, an innocent man caught up in a conspiracy who has to go on the run to evade being arrested for murder.

Locations used in the region include Ae Forest, Mitchellslacks, Morton Castle, Buccluech Estates, the Dalveen Pass and Durisdeer Village.

Lots of locals got involved: local piper Ian Clowe played his bagpipes in two scenes, local film critic Bill Cunningham had the job of co-ordinating film extras, and Billy Jardine from the Dumfries Guild of Players played the tramp whose coat Hannay steals when he’s on the run, and had a line specially written for him.

In 2003, the BBC made a series of 15-minute programmes about well-known British films, and decided to do The 39 Steps. Presenter Ben Fogle (from Castaway) revisited all the locations and recreated some of Hannay’s daring run across the moors at Mitchellslacks.

The Wicker Man, a highly original and unusual horror film scripted by Anthony Shaffer has been called ‘The Citizen Kane of British Horror’.

After a disappointing cinema release as the B feature to Nicolas Roeg’s ‘Don’t Look Now, it began to gather a respectable following in America but it took several more years before British cinema critics began to take it more seriously.

The film tells the story of Sergeant Howie who investigates the disappearance of a young girl who he believes has been killed in a bizarre pagan ritual to promote a better harvest on the island of Summerisle. Even though the story was set on an island, for practical reasons it was decided that filming should take place on the Scottish mainland, with Dumfries and Galloway providing most of the locations.

The film still inspires visitors to the region today: Crichton University organised an academic conference in 2003 on the film, at which Robin Hardy, the director, was a keynote speaker.

The alternative music festival, The Wickerman Festival, burns a large Wicker Man each year in honour of the film. For more information on the film locations and the festival, please see our Wicker Man Trail on this website.

The Wicker Man DVD, containing both UK and US versions of the film plus a 35 minute documentary, is available from Warner Brothers and the original soundtrack album is available from Silva Screen Records Ltd (FILMCD330).

Set just after World War II, Bogarde plays a man who goes on the run after committing a crime of passion. He befriends a small boy who is also running away and the two of them strike up an unusual friendship.

Shot in black and white, this is a grim picture of post-war Britain.

Though it was shot predominately in Staffordshire, one of the locations used was Portpatrick in our region.