For the day that was in it, it was a Good Friday to catch up with Peter Broughan today.
I was delighted to learn that his cinematic labour of love is progressing well.
For the past 13 years, Peter has been working to bring his vision of Celtic‘s origins to the big screen.
As we chatted, I proffered that this was grassroots filmmaking.
Not arthouse but entirely authentic.
In a way, it is how Celtic itself started.
His own backstory is closely entwined with the Parkhead club.
The man who brought us Rob Roy the movie was born in the Calton, baptised in St Mary’s and educated at “the Mungo”.
He’s told me he’s the proud son of John Broughan, a postman and shop steward in the old UPW, and Elizabeth Thomson, a cleaner in the old Duke Street Hospital.
This is a world away from the entitled cocoon that produced King Dermot’s bumbling dauphin.
The other difference is that Peter, a season ticket holder since the days of the Bunnet, actually pays for to get into games.
Here is Peter with Paul John on ACSOM last year.
Peter brought me up to date on the current state of play.
He said that senior people at the club had read the script and loved it.
Peter made the point that he had never asked Celtic for financial backing.
“I’ve never asked the club for a penny, just introductions so that I could connect with high-net-worth Celtic supporters who might want to be part of this project.”
For some reason, the club seemed to have backed away from that original stance.
Despite this, the project is in the final phase.
He continued:
“We are now actively casting the film. However, we are still seeking the final part of the financing that will ensure that Paradise makes it to the screen.”
Dear reader, here is the LINK if you want to help.
For reasons I can’t fathom, I suspect this movie about Celtic’s origins might annoy some people in the Parkhead Boardroom.
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Interesting. As I know for a fact: On Peter’s behalf , a current Celtic Director took the script to a Global US based TV Streaming company trying to help the project come to screen.
I passed your comment to Peter and this is what he sent me:
“Please tell your correspondent that is absolutely true, but it was in the period when people at the club were indeed trying to to be helpful – as I have repeatedly said in private and in public. I approached a particular board member who did indeed help very directly in getting the project to the decision makers at a major streamer. I remain very grateful to the person concerned for that.
But the the doors were suddenly slammed shut, with reasons given that had no place in logic or reality. I still hope that the supporters of the project in the highest positions at Celtic Park might reconsider and come back to discuss the possibilities, as they said they would.
That was a year ago.”