Press release -
The king of premieres
Academy Award nominee Michael Fassbender and director Justin Kurzel will be among those on the red carpet in Edinburgh for the UK premiere of Macbeth, it has been announced.
The screening will take place at Festival Theatre Edinburgh on Sunday 27 September 2015.
News of the premiere comes as VisitScotland announces it has joined forces with STUDIOCANAL, the film’s distributors, to promote the country around the new big-screen version of Macbeth, which will be in cinemas nationwide from October 2.
Starring Michael Fassbender and Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard and directed by Justin Kurzel, the film is being hailed as an outstanding opportunity for Scottish tourism.
Filmed partly on location on Skye - including the Quairaing, the Fairy Pools and the Old Man of Storr - the release of the movie is also expected to lead to a surge of interest in other areas associated with both the real Scottish king (who reigned from 1040 to 1057) and the character made famous by William Shakespeare’s play.
Locations associated with the real Macbeth include: Dingwall, where he is thought to have been born;Moray, where he was mormaer (Earl) of Moray, with boundaries stretching much further than what we know as present day Moray; Pitgaveney near Elgin, where he defeated and killed Duncan; Scone, where he was crowned; and Iona, where he is buried.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth, meanwhile, references Cawdor Castle in the Highlands and Glamis Castle in Angus.
As well as teaming up with STUDIOCANAL, VisitScotland will also be working with a number of tourism industry partners to deliver a campaign that will include PR and partnership promotions, dedicated Macbeth web pages on visitscotland.com and an online map of Macbeth locations around Scotland.
Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Europe and External Affairs, said:
“Macbeth is the latest in a long line of major productions to be filmed in Scotland. The much-anticipated movie will showcase our stunning scenery and our rich heritage to audiences around the world, encouraging new and return visitors to come and see all Scotland has to offer.
“I was delighted when, with locations service and production funding support from Creative Scotland, we enticed this major production to film in Scotland, and it is excellent that the finished product will now have its UK premiere in our capital city next month.”
Mike Cantlay, Chairman of VisitScotland, said:“We are delighted to be working with STUDIOCANALon the promotion of Macbeth’s Scotland. The new film adaptation will generate renewed excitement and interest in one of Scotland’s most intriguing figures. As well as Skye serving as a stunning filming location, historic locations with a strong connection to Macbeth, including Glamis Castle, Scone Palace and Cawdor Castle, could also experience a surge in visitor numbers as film fans around the world seek to learn more about the man being portrayed by Michael Fassbender.”
Natalie Usher, Director of Screen at Creative Scotland, which supported the film through production and location recce funding, said:“We are delighted that Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth will receive its UK premiere in Scotland. Filmed on location in Skye, our locations teams worked hard to guide the production and our actors and crews played a huge part in the interpretation of Justin’s vision for Macbeth. We are really proud to have supported this remarkable adaptation of such a well-known work. We wish the film every success.”
Hugh Spearing, Head of UK Marketing at STUDIOCANAL, said:“We at STUDIOCANAL are thrilled to be partnering with VisitScotland and their partners to bring MACBETH’s rich historical legacy back to his home country while also celebrating Justin Kurzel’s incredible vision of the classic story on the big screen.”
John Cowe, Chairman of the Moray Economic Partnership said:“We have been working for some time now to promote the real story of Macbeth, who came from Moray.
“This partnership between VisitScotland and STUDIOCANALwill give us in Moray a useful opportunity to raise awareness of the real man behind the legend. We look forward to working together and welcoming visitors to our beautiful region, home of the real Macbeth.”
Macbeth will be released in cinemas across the UK on October 2.
To see the latest trailer, go to:
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- fassbender
- macbeth
- corporate communications
- film tourism
Regions
- Scotland
Notes to Editors
-
- Follow us on twitter: @visitscotnews
- VisitScotland is Scotland’s national tourism organisation. Its core purpose is to maximise the economic benefit of tourism to Scotland.
- The organisation’s core objective is to contribute to the Tourism 2020 Strategy ambition of growing tourism revenues by £1 billion by 2020.
- This will be supported by seven overarching strategies:
- Marketing: we will market Scotland and its outstanding assets to visitors from all parts of the world, including the promotion of Scotland to people living in Scotland to visit different parts of the country
- Events: we will support the national events strategy and its delivery, and sustain, develop and promote Scotland’s international profile as one of the world’s foremost events destinations
- Internationalisation and International Engagement: we will utilise all our platforms to enable Scottish-based tourism businesses to better understand international opportunities and market to a global audience and we will work within One Scotland Partnerships to optimise the potential of Scotland’s Diaspora and our strategic partners at regional, European and global levels
- Customer Experience: we will provide information and inspiration to visitors both locally and globally via their preferred medium of choice
- Quality and Sustainability: we will provide support and advice to businesses, with the goal of improving the quality and sustainability of the tourism sector in Scotland. We will provide quality assurance to visitors through our Quality Schemes
- Inclusive Tourism: we will strive to make tourism in Scotland inclusive and available to all
- Working in Partnership: we will listen to and work with the industry, partners and communities to shape our offering and support
- VisitScotland works together with tourism businesses to make tourism a success for everyone and ensure the industry continues to grow.
- The organisation employs 700 people and has offices and VisitScotland Information Centres across Scotland.
- According to a recent Deloitte study, the tourism economy supports 270,000 jobs in Scotland in 20,000 diverse businesses. The same study calculates that the tourism economy contributes £11 billion annually (direct and indirect impact, including day visits) and supports around 10 per cent of employment in Scotland. Almost 16 million tourists take overnight trips to Scotland.
- For VisitScotland’s press releases go to http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre.aspx, tourism statistics and frequently asked questions go to http://www.visitscotland.org/
- Where possible, a Gaelic speaker will be made available for broadcast interviews on request (Far an tèid iarraidh, agus far am bheil sin nar comas, bruidhinnidh neach le Gàidhlig aig agallamh)
- For holiday information on Scotland go to www.visitscotland.com
- For information about business events in Scotland go to www.conventionscotland.com
Year of Food and Drink 2015- 2015 is the Year of Food and Drink, a celebration of Scotland’s natural larder and the role that food and drink plays in shaping our economic success.
- Scotland generates over £2.5m per day through food and drink tourism.
- A series of themed months will create an appetite for key areas of Scotland’s food and drink industries – from seafood and whisky to berries and high-quality meat
- For more information, visit www.visitscotland.com/tastescotland
