Andrea Calderwood's London-based Slate Films is at lastmaking headway on its long-gestating project, Last King Of Scotland.Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald is attached to direct the film, which isnow being fast-tracked. Calderwood will co-produce with Lisa Bryer of CowboyFilms.
Slate's partners on the project are FilmFour, with whom the project wasoriginally set up with Joe Penhall as writer during the Paul Webster era, andDNA, run by Macdonald's older brother Andrew Macdonald, which last year tied up a joint venture with Fox Searchlight.

Kevin Macdonald and Peter Morgan (The Deal) areco-writing the script, adapted from the novel by Giles Foden about the finaldays of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. The idea is to play to Macdonald's strengthsas a documentary-director and to use some archive footage alongside the dramatisedsequences.
"Having Kevin's involvement has really put a motor under the project tothe point where we are very confident of being able to shoot it later thisyear," Calderwood told ScreenDaily.com
Calderwood is also working with the FilmFour on two new low-budget features, HouseArrest, to be directed by Jamie Thraves (The Low Down) and TheNana Saga, a low-budget comedy about "a teenage boy who falls in lovewith his granny's best friend" to be directed by BAFTA winner, Adrian J.McDowell, who is heralded by Calderwood as "Scotland's heir to BillForsyth." Meanwhile, Slate and FilmFour are continuing to develop ElBulto, a comedy about a young man trapped in an old man's body. Dan Mazer(producer of Ali G Indahouse) is attached to direct.
Slate's BBC Films-backed Benny Lynch project, a biopic of the 1930s Glaswegianboxer, has been re-titled Annie And Benny. John Mackenzie (The LongGood Friday) is attached to direct. Robert Carlyle is still in the frame toplay Lynch.
Earlier this week, Slate confirmed that its Paul Laverty-scripted thriller Cargo(formerly known as Gull), which it is making with Juan Gordon's Morena Films,is to be sold internationally by Wild Bunch.

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