SPOT THE MOVIE STAR IN PAISLEY

SPOT THE MOVIE STAR IN PAISLEY


Paisley Daily Express(Scotland)


August 3,2007



STARS of a big bucks movie were spotted strolling through Paisley yesterday as they wrapped up filming in the town's oldest bar.

Up and coming English lead actor Charlie Cox casually chatted with fellow screen-stars outside The Bull Inn – which has been transformed into a pub from 1950s London for a scene in new Brit-flick The Stone Of Destiny.

And actors Ciaron Kelly and Stephen McCole – who play students Gavin Vernon and Alan Stuart – were also seen outside the historic boozer surrounded by a squad of extras.

Crew members turned the New Street boozer into a film set and Buddies walking past were seen craning their necks in a bid to catch a glimpse of the famous faces.

The actors will now fly south to London later this week to continue shooting the movie after a week-long filming schedule in the town was completed yesterday at around 7pm.




Paisley Abbey and other scenes from the area are set to appear in the £6million film – being billed as an adventure comedy– when it hits the big screens next year.



Producer Andrew Boswell yesterday said Paisley could have a bright future in the film industry.



"We have really enjoyed filming in Paisley," he beamed. "We have got a really good crew and a terrific cast and have had great locations to film in.



"It's been a very smooth – yet hectic – shoot and we are delighted with what we have got and we now head to London at the end of this week in good spirits.



"Would we come back to Paisley for other projects? Absolutely. We have got a Robert Burns project coming up with Gerard Butler and we're hoping to shoot that in the middle of next year.



"A lot of that will be done in Ayrshire but we may come back to Paisley, which would be good for Gerard, a Buddie himself!"



The Stone Of Destiny movie centres on the real-life story of the daring bid by four Glasgow University students to steal the medieval coronation stone from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1950, sparking an international search.



The scenes shot in the Bull Inn in New Street involve the students last planning meeting before their daring heist.



Legendary director Charlie Martin Smith – who starred in the 1987 Oscar winning movie, The Untouchables – popped in for a pint to check out the location earlier this year and yesterday he got his hands on the location for the first time.



Andrew added: "Yesterday was our last day of shooting in Paisley. We were at the Abbey for five days as we shot it as a double for Westminster and spent just one day in the pub.



"The Bull Inn is doubling as a pub in London and the dressing that we have had to do to the interior to make it look like a bar from 57-years ago has been minimal.



"We probably saw 60 pubs in the Glasgow and the Paisley area but this was by far the best. As far as I know Craig MacFadyen, the landlord, and the other guys who run it were happy to have us and we were delighted that they let us in because we had trouble finding a suitable double for the London pub scene."



Andrew paid tribute to the welcome the cast and crew have received from Buddies.



He said: "A lot of the filming has been at night so that has minimalised the number of spectators we have seen.



"However, we did one shot over the river by the Abbey and we had quite a crowd watching on from across the river and they were all really enthusiastic."



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