A MULTI-million-pound film about the Loch Ness monster is set to go ahead this year after a deal brought major Hollywood backers on board.
Film-makers will descend on the area for three weeks this summer to shoot scenes for The Water Horse, a children's tale by Dick King-Smith, the author of Babe.
But the monster will be created in New Zealand, where the bulk of the film work will b
e carried out. The director and producer Douglas Rae, the head of Ecosse Films, had a ten-year battle to get the film off the ground. Three Hollywood production companies, Walden Media, Beacon Pictures and Revolution Studios are now on board.
"It's going to end up as one of the most expensive films made in Britain this year. There's a lot of special effects," he said.
Weta Digital, the New Zealand team behind the visual effects for Lord of the Rings, King Kong and Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, have been hired for the project. "If it had been my choice, we would have shot the whole thing in Scotland, but big American studios want the best special effects people in the world," said Mr Rae, who created Monarch of the Glen and the Oscar-winning Mrs Brown.
The Water Horse tells the story of two children in Second World War Scotland who find a mysterious egg in a rock pool on the west coast. They hide it from their parents and it hatches a strange creature which grows to become the Loch Ness monster.
Celia Stevenson, of Scottish Screen, said: "It's a lovely story. It will make a lovely film."
She said Scotland had struggled hard against the tax incentives New Zealand offers filmmakers, and added: "We did our damndest to do it here."
