9 times that Hollywood came to the Highlands & Islands

Keanu Reeves’ historic samurai story transformed Skye into ancient Japan with a huge Buddha transposed onto The Quiraing.
Samurai are featured racing over the landmark on horseback with Neist Point twinning as the west coast of Japan and Glenbrittle used in incidental shots.

Filmmakers searching for the necessary drama for an opening shot often look to Scotland for a suitablly awe-inspiring backdrop.
The crew behind The Dark Knight Rises, starring Christian Bale , Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy, found what they were looking for at Loch Bealach Culaidh in Assynt.
The loch features in the opening scenes when a wingless, highjacked aircraft dangles in the air during the kidnap of a scientist.
As filming got underway, parachutists dressed in black and using a private blacked out jet used Cairngorm Gliding Club's site at Feshie Bridge to warm up for the shoot.

Skye is no stranger to film shoots but it landed a huge production when Steven Speilberg's team settled on the island to film The BFG, which was released earlier this year.
Easily transformed into Giant’s Land, the home of the title character, with Old Man of Storr and The Quiraing becoming a natural backdrop for the fantasy animation.
The film’s location manager David Broder said: “Scotland provided The BFG with very dramatic mountain and island locations that became our Giant's Land, a place of wonder and awe.”

Loch Airigh on Harris's rocky east coast became the planet Jupiter in Stanley Kubrick's seminal science fiction film.
With the Hebridean terrain composed predominantly of large rocks known as anorthosite, which are similar in composition to that found on the moon, Kubrick used only coloured filters to make the leap between Scotland and space.
The landscape was shot from above by cameramen installed in light aircraft to enhance that other worldly feel.

Flash Gordon and Dale Arden Board a light aircraft in a hot hailstorm at Broadford Airfield at Ashaig, Skye, shortly before Ming the Merciless launches an attack on earth.
The pair are helped onto the aircraft by Robbie Coltrane, who is credited as ‘Man at Airfield’ at the end of the film.
Actor Sam J Jones spent two weeks on the island filming Flash Gordon and spent his free time being taught darts by the locals.
In 2013, he lent his support to the campaign to reinstate commercial flights to Skye.
“Based on my experience with the local people, if it is in their best interest, then I am for it,” he said.

Director Nicolas Widing Refn wanted to go to the most extreme places possible for the dark fantasty story of One Eye, the mute fighter with supernatural strength.
The crew ended up in Glen Affric as it sought complete isolation from modernity as well as a location which would allow sweeping, long shots through uninhabited lands. Some shots from Scotland have been used to portray Canada.
The production was beset with bad weather with one of the cameras developing surface rust on the shoot. Filming persevered, however, as the conditions were said to suit the journey of One Eye down to the ground.

The cast and crew were said to be "blown away" by the scenery of Glencoe and Glen Etive, where red stags randomly wandered into shot.
The highest grossing James Bond film of all time took 007 back to his childhood home of Skyfall House, which lay somewhere off the A82. Of course, he arrived in his Aston Martin with the journey delivering dramatic and convincingly dreich views across the glen.
In reality, Skyfall House is nowhere to be found in Scotland. It was built on set in Surrey, using plaster and plywood, and was completely destroyed in the firefight between Bond and his adversary Raoul Silva.

The Hogwart's Express steam train needs little introduction with the Glenfinnan Viaduct, which connects Fort William and Mallaig by rail, now an emblem for the Harry Potter tales.
The Harry Potter location scouts dug deep into the Highlands to shoot the childhood fantasy. Glencoe was used as a backdrop to Hogwarts School and the Steall Falls at Glen Nevis featured in the Tri-Wizard Tournament in the Goblet of Fire (2005).
The Quidditch matches were filmed against the backdrop of Glen Nevis.

Arverikie House and estate - already the setting for Monarch of the Glen - became the Scottish home of Sheik Muhammed in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.
Ewan McGregor played the government scientist, Dr Alfred Jones, who was charged with building a fishery for the sheik in the desert. The actor felt "very strongly" that the scientist should be a Scotsman and set to work on instilling him with a slightly uptight, well-to-do accent.
The cast were taught flyfishing by Bill Drury, one of the sport's most well regarded characters on the set. The fishing scenes were shot largely around Loch Laggan.