A Scottish business is celebrating success on the silver screen as its antique and vintage padlocks star alongside Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law and Mads Mikkelsen in a major film.
Some 33 of the props were bought from Scaramanga for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore, which is released on Friday, making it the third major Hollywood or UK film in as many months to use the Cupar firm.
Animales fantásticos: Los secretos de Dumbledore online, Carl Morenikeji, company founder and managing director, said seeing the products on film was “far beyond anything I could have imagined” when one of the firm’s items appeared as a prop a decade ago.
The JK Rowling film is the 17th movie that one of its products has appeared in.
Sir Ridley Scott’s Agatha Christie remake Death On The Nile, which premiered on February 11 starring Sir Kenneth Branagh and Gal Gadot, also featured padlocks from the firm.
The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson as the caped crusader, came to the big screen on March 4 and included six different vintage padlocks supplied by Scaramanga.
Mr Morenikeji said: “Seeing our products used in film and TV productions is always a special moment, but to have grown our reputation for vintage and antique lifestyle products to the point where we have them in Hollywood movies being released in three consecutive months and six in one year is far beyond anything I could have imagined when our antique trunks and chests appeared in our first movie, Dark Shadows, ten years ago.”
There is a growing film and television industry in Scotland, which brought £42m into Glasgow alone last year.
The firm is hoping 2023 will shape up to be another bumper year, with five films it has supplied set for release at the box office next year, with the possibility of two television shows to follow.
Past films to use the company’s wares include The Hobbit, Paddington 2, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Maleficent, Victoria & Abdul, Pan, The Legend Of Tarzan, Dark Shadows and Infinite.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is mentioned several times as a school textbook in the Harry Potter book series, although Scamander himself does not appear in any of the books. In 2001, Rowling published an edition of the “textbook” to be sold to raise money for the British charity Comic Relief. The book is a directory of magical creatures with an introduction by its author, Newt Scamander. It does not contain a narrative.
First announced in September 2013 just two years after the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, the Fantastic Beasts project marked Rowling’s debut as a screenwriter. The film sees the return of producer David Heyman, as well as writer Steve Kloves, both veterans of the Potter film franchise. There were rumors that Alfonso Cuarón would direct, which he refuted in May 2014. Warner Bros. announced that David Yates would direct at least the first instalment of a planned trilogy. James Newton Howard was brought on board to score the film.
Principal photography began on 17 August 2015, at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, in Hertfordshire, England and wrapped in January 2016. Several scenes were shot on location in London. After two months, the production moved to the Cunard Building and St George’s Hall in Liverpool, which was transformed into 1920s New York City. Framestore in London produced the visual effects for the film.