MAJOR refurbishment work on the building that will be home to Scotland's new film studio will not take place until "further down the line", MSPs have been told.
While Screen Scotland is contributing £1 million to work on the new facility in the Port of Leith, the organisation's executive director Isabel Davies said the building had lain empty for the past 15 years.
First Stage Studios has come in to run the facility at the former Pelamis site, with director Bob Last and Jason Connery - the son of James Bond star Sir Sean - to helm the project.
Davies said there are already production companies looking to film there, adding the building is a "fully functioning production facility right now".
She told MSPs on Holyrood's Culture Committee that "productions are looking at it as is" and "we have a number of clients who have expressed a strong interest".
The £1 million from Screen Scotland is going towards the initial refurbishment of the building and setup and running costs, Davies said.
She said further refurbishment would take place later "according to the demands" of production firms.
It is proposed to have a total of five separate sound stages on the site, potentially allowing filming for more than one project to take place at the same time.
While she said the building has been empty for 15 years, the Screen Scotland executive director described it as being a "very robust structure "There are a number of productions that are looking to use it to film in without that large-scale refurbishment we fully anticipate will come further down the line but tailored to client demand as that demand comes in," she said.
While Davies said film was undergoing a "boom" period, due in part to streaming services such as Netflix, figures showed total production spend in Scotland fell to £67 million in 2018-19 - a drop from £95 million the previous year.
She said she hoped the new studio facilities would help attract more high-profile work to Scotland.
Filming for Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War has already taken place at the Leith site.
Davies said: "There are many people who want to come back to Scotland, we know that we have world class crews, heads of departments, directors and writers.
"They are not all living in Scotland right now because they haven't been able to build a sustainable career here.
"They are very excited about the possibility of bringing more production to Scotland that will allow them to come home."
She added: "We are aware that 35% of the crew on Game of Thrones came from Scotland, let's have them back.
"This is a boom time for global production, fuelled by the rise of the streaming platforms and an insatiable appetite for high quality content, whether on TV or cinema screens.
"Now is indeed the time to be developing Scottish companies, writers, directors, producers and crew in order to participate in this boom and ensure that Scottish-led content has its place on those screens."
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