Alistair RutherfordAbout me
Screenwriting
My most recent project was the screenplay for the documentary ReDrawing Edinburgh, a Cinescapes Production directed and produced by Amanda Rogers. This film was part of the commemorative events run by City of Edinburgh Council to mark the 100th anniversary of the amalgamation of Edinburgh in 1920 with 5 of the city's outlying areas. The film was projected onto buildings in outdoor screenings in each of the 5 areas in September 2021.
In 2016 I was hired to co-write the adaptation of the feature film Dark Sense, from Peter Flannery's novel First and Only, an Amazon best-selling thriller. Directed by Magnus Wake of Encaptivate Film.
Previous commissions include a feature screenplay for Weiwei Si of Brainstorm Films. This is a fast-moving and exciting spy thriller based upon real people. Weiwei has worked as 1st AD on the Jackie Chan movie, Bleeding Steel, and directed all 24 episodes of a sci-fi comedy drama for Chinese TV. Another previous commission was for the feature film Vault for Mattias Karlsson at Swedish production company Storymix.
Several of my short films have been produced and screened in festivals in the UK, USA and Canada.
In 2007 I completed a Masters in Screenwriting from the Screen Academy Scotland.
Television
CBBC OOglies
CBBC animated comedy series OOglies is a stop-frame show produced by Ko Lik Films for CBBC. The show won a Children's BAFTA in November 2016. I was part of the writing team for that series and it was great fun bringing everyday objects to spectacular and frequently splatted life!
Haunted Hogmanay
Haunted Hogmanay is a 30-minute stop-frame animation produced by Ko Lik Films for BBC1 Scotland in 2006. I was hired to add more comedy material to the script.
Feature screenplays
Dark Sense
Dark Sense is an adaptation from the best-selling novel, First and Only, by Peter Flannery. It's a fast-paced, supernatural thriller and is directed and produced by Magnus Wake of Encaptivate Film, Edinburgh, who commissioned me to adapt into a feature-length screenplay. Encaptivate Film.
Backflip
Backflip is an original feature-length sci-fi action thriller.
Vault
Vault is a feature project under development by producer Mattias Karlsson of Storymix, Sweden and director Andreas Fernbrandt.
The website for Vault is here.
Short screenplays
Eight Words
If eight words is all you have, what do you say when your world is falling apart?
An emotional story about a woman who has to tell her husband the worst news of their lives. What makes it even harder is he’s at sea for the next three months, a submariner, and regulations mean she can only send a message eight words long. Somehow, she manages to compose the message that she hopes will help both of them the most.
Eight Words was directed by Christopher Hood and completed in early 2010. It was selected for the New York City International Film Festival in August 2010, where it was the only UK short in the seventy-strong main narrative short programme.
In November 2010 it screened at the Poppy Jasper Short Film Festival in Morgan Hill, California. Thanks to help from Creative Scotland I attended the festival which was an excellent experience. It also screened at the Wildsound Film Festival in Toronto in March 2011 and filmed audience feedback is here Eight Words. Eight Words also screened at the Edinburgh Short Film Festival in June 2013.
Lift Off
A young screenwriter gets the chance to pitch the story that could make her career when a Hollywood producer steps into her lift. But can she overcome her innate shyness to win him over?
Lift Off was directed by Weiwei Si and produced by Anne LaBarbera of Pictish Productions. It’s had one festival outing and played to a great reaction in the Edinburgh Short Film Festival in June 2012.
Playwriting
Passing Through
Produced by Philip Kingscott’s Peapod Productions. A romantic comedy, Passing Through is set on a wet winter’s night. At the Dockers Social Club there’s been a terrible mistake. They booked ‘The Ace of Spades’ thinking it was a Motörhead tribute band, but they for Tommy the Magician instead. Tommy made a sharp exit and is nursing a pint and a bruised ego in the pub down the road when Alice stomps in from the rain. She’s soaked, been stood-up, and that’s it: she’s had it forever with romance.
What neither of them know is that some magic might just be around the corner. Or is true love just another conjuring trick, a sleight of hand?
The play opened in Edinburgh in February 2012 at the Scottish Storytelling Centre and then went out on tour to six other venues, including Inverness and Glasgow. We sold out our opening weekend and many of the subsequent shows, including The Tron and The Byre! In 2013 Philip took the play back out on tour and it played in more venues across Scotland and ended a very successful run with 2 shows in Italy and Switzerland. All in all, 32 shows across both tours.
A Most Curious Detour
This was a commission from the Stroke Association UK to adapt Stuart Hepburn's autobiography into a full-length stage play. Stuart wrote a very moving and honest portrayal of his life after suffering a very severe brain-stem stroke, which left him living with 'locked-in' syndrome. Two performances were given of the play, in Edinburgh (2012) and Glasgow (2013). Both shows sold out completely and it is hoped Stuart's powerful story can be told once more at a later time.
The Garden
Peapod Productions toured my play to 7 venues across the UK in the summer of 2011. It began in the Leith Festival, then travelled to the Henley Fringe, North Berwick’s Fringe by the Sea, Livingston, Edinburgh and finally the island of Skye. Those were all outdoor, site-specific productions in unique settings. Joyce McMillan gave the play a 5-star review in The Scotsman.
Lizzy Strata
My adaptation of Aristophanes’ classic, Lysistrata, still set in Ancient Greece but brought up to date with contemporary language and an Edinburgh twist. Big Village Theatre Company performed this in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2011.
An Island Between Heaven And Earth
This historical drama is about the formation of the Iona Community. It was originally commissioned and broadcast by BBC Radio 4 as a radio play in 2004 (and repeated 2006). In 2010 I expanded it into a full-length stage play and it played at the Netherbow Theatre, the Leith Festival and in Govan Old Parish Church. At the request of the Iona Community the play was performed as part of their 75th Anniversary celebrations. We sold out all four performances in Edinburgh, Iona and Govan and had fantastic audience reactions to this important and true Scottish story. The play will now have a 3-week run within the Just Festival in August 2014 in Edinburgh.
And so long as the Leith Festival keeps telling stories as moving and important as this one, its place on the Scottish theatre scene can only grow more secure and more significant.
Joyce McMillan’s Scotsman review
Happy New Year!
This family-centred comedy drama was commissioned and broadcast by BBC Radio Scotland in 2009 (and repeated 2010). I adapted my own full-length stage play, Homecoming, into this 30-minute radio play.
Homecoming
In 2008 Leith Festival commissioned me to write this full-length play. A full production of Homecoming was performed by Big Village Theatre Company in the 2009 Festival.
The Lazar House
I won the Hydrae Theatre Playwriting Competition in 2009 with this 30-minute thriller set in a medical testing facility. The play was subsequently produced by Hydrae and performed during the St Ives Festival, Cornwall, in September 2009.