An Edinburgh local out for a lunchtime stroll at one of the capital's most iconic landmarks stumbled across a film crew on Monday afternoon.
The witness caught camera crews, producers and actors in period costume gathered on Calton Hill with a prop coffin at lunchtime on Monday.
“I spotted this on lunchtime as I was away from my office to go out and chill,” the witness said. “No idea what they are filming.”
The witness grabbed pictures and videos of actors in Victorian style clothing and caps gathered around a prop coffin and headstone, lowering the set into the ground at Calton Hill. Cameras and film crew can be seen gathered around the outdoor set.
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On Tuesday, Film Edinburgh, the film office to Edinburgh, East Lothian and the Scottish Borders said the crew was in fact filming some pick-up for a feature length presentation due to air next year.
The office said the Calton Hill scene was filmed for a Sky Arts film version of the National Theatre of Scotland’s ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde.’
Although the National Theatre has used Edinburgh’s Leith Theatre for most of the production, some scenes, such as the one on Calton Hill, have been filmed on location around the city.
Neither the National Theatre nor Film Edinburgh released details of future filming times and locations.
A National Theatre press release said most scenes have been filmed in the “historic backstage maze of rooms and hallways” at Leith Theatre and against the outside facades of the venue which were “transformed into film set location scenes of Victorian Edinburgh.”
The Theatre added that “a special feature length version of the film, in a new edit, will be broadcast on Sky Arts in 2023.”
The scene filmed on Calton Hill is assumed to be part of the new edit for Sky Arts next year.
Written by Edinburgh born writer Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886, the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde has been told and retold by more than 123 films over the years, but the National Theatre of Scotland said its version by Hope Dickson Leach and Vlad Butucea, returns to the original story.
The National Theatre said: “The drama follows Gabriel Utterson as he enters a world of dark duplicity to uncover the identity of the mysterious Mr Hyde and the hold he has over Utterson’s old friend Dr Jekyll.
“In this version, Utterson’s journey is set against the background and backdrop of Victorian Edinburgh, where the wealth of the breweries is contrasted with the poverty of the Cowgate Vaults, exposing an underbelly of dark truths and corruption.
“This is a Jekyll and Hyde reworked for a contemporary audience with the themes of power, class and masculinity brought to the fore.”
National Theatre’s ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ will be available as a digital stream on the National Theatre website from 24 October to 6 November.
The film will be made available free to schools from the Company’s Education Portal from October 24.
More information about the production is available from the National Theatre of Scotland website.
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