Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
October 9, 2009
IT HAS already become Lothian's most famous X-File - and now it's set to feature on the big screen.
The claims by two Edinburgh friends that they were abducted by aliens while driving in 1992 have become the stuff of legend and fierce debate.
In what has become known as the "A70 Abduction Case" Garry Wood and Colin Wright have stood by their incredible story ever since.
The pair are now working with a London production company which is finalising a script to turn their close encounter into a film.
"It's such a fantastic story and I was attracted to it from the first time I heard it," said film producer Dionne Rose, who is financing the film through her company DBR Entertainment.
"I had seen the film Fire in the Sky [based on the experiences of American logger Travis Walton who was purportedly abducted in 1975] which has similarities but Colin and Garry's experience did have unique elements to it."
The two friends have told over the years how they encountered the flying saucer on the A70 near the Harperrig Reservoir, a few miles west of Balerno. The pair drove beneath it in an attempt to get away, and were enveloped in a shimmering energy beam.
When they arrived at their destination in Tarbrax village, about five miles from Harperrig, they were an hour and a half late and could not account for the time.
Medical checks failed to find a cause for the memory lapse, or the severe headaches both men had developed, but hypnotherapy sessions brought forth memories of alien experiments conducted by a translucent-grey, skeletal creature.
Gilmerton mechanic and car-enthusiast Garry, whose workmates took to calling him "Starman", went on to pass a televised lie detector test, and the men's experiences pre-date the spate of alien abduction claims which were sparked by the X-Files television series in the mid-90s.
Shortly after their experience the pair visited paranormal investigator Malcolm Robinson, who was based in Alloa at the time but now lives in London, and he convinced them to go through hypnotic regression.
"These guys were desperate for anything to explain what happened to them," said Mr Robinson, who is also working on the film.
"Under hypnosis they described tall grey creatures quite unique from standard abductee descriptions of five-foot childlike aliens.
"Garry, who's from quite a tough part of Edinburgh, told me that he was strapped to a table with these things prodding him and he desperately wanted to take a swing at one of them.
"It's such a great premise for a film and we're currently going through script negotiations with Colin and Garry to make sure they're happy with everything. I hope they don't add too much salt and pepper to it and make it another Braveheart, based on fact but 80 per cent inaccurate.
"People have asked me who I would like and I usually say Ewan McGregor, although I had a moustache in those days so he'd have to grow one. Colin and Garry are such down-to-earth guys it's hard to imagine any famous actors playing them."
Neither Colin nor Garry wanted to comment on the film plans.
No comments:
Post a Comment