Johnny Depp’s Highland fang fest?
Johnny Depp
A HOLLYWOOD blockbuster starring Johnny Depp could be filmed in the Highlands.
The Pirates of the Caribbean movie star is due begin filming a vampire thriller in April – and speculation is rife of scenes being shot in the North.
Industry insiders say that locations in Scotland are currently being scouted.
And the Scottish Highlands and Islands Film Commission has confirmed it has heard rumours the area is in the running.
Johnny Depp is to star in Dark Shadows, a revival of a 1960s TV supernatural series of the same name.
It is being reinvented by heart-throb Depp and director and close friend Tim Burton.
Trish Shorthouse, who heads the Highlands and Islands Film Commission, said: "We have heard the same rumours but we don’t have any confirmation about it. There is no detail at the moment, although it would be wonderful if this does happen."
Depp, who is married to French actress and singer Vanessa Paradis, has worked with Burton on previous movies including Alice in Wonderland and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He starred in both these blockbusters with Burton’s partner, actress Helena Bonham Carter.
Dark Shadows was a gothic soap opera that originally aired weekdays in the USA between 1966 to 1971.
The series became hugely popular when, a year into its run, vampire Barnabas Collins appeared. Dark Shadows also featured werewolves, ghosts, zombies, man-made monsters, witches, warlocks, time travel and a parallel universe.
On various film websites there are claims that Tim Burton and pop icon Madonna have both stated they are fans of the series and that Johnny Depp was so obsessed with Barnabas Collins that he wanted to be him.
From Braveheart to Harry Potter!
It wouldn’t be the first time a blockbuster movie has been filmed in the Highlands.
All of the Harry Potter movies have had location shooting in the region with the four Lochaber glens – Glenfinnan, Glen Nevis, Glencoe and Glen Etive – featuring heavily.
The West Highland Railway Line’s Glenfinnan Viaduct has become familiar to millions of Harry Potter movie goers and Glen Nevis was the backdrop for a famous Quidditch Match and a computer enhanced dragon slaying.
And the Glencoe mountains have been used as the location of Hagrid’s Hut, Sundial Garden and the Bridge to Nowhere.
At the start of the Harry Potter movie mania in 2003, a film-making entourage numbering 400 pumped over £1 million into the Lochaber economy. Over a period of three months, they filled up several hotels between Fort William and Oban.
The filming provided work for local joiners, electricians, gophers, porters, security staff, taxi firms, and food outlets. And, of course, it also brought the cast members to Lochaber.
A number of scenes for the fantasy Stardust, which had Robert Di Niro in the cast, were shot in Wester Ross and Skye in 2006.
Loch Ness, a 1996 family drama film starring Ted Danson and Joely Richardson, was also shot on location and the cast and crew of Braveheart spent six weeks shooting on location in the Highlands as did 1995 movie Rob Roy.
In the opening scenes of the movie Rob and his men pass by Loch Leven and Loch Morar stood in for Loch Lomond, on the banks of which the real Rob Roy lived. Non-stop Highland rain presented a problem for cast and crew when filming outdoor shots, as did the resulting swarms of midges.
