ANGUS Macfadyen has thanked his fans after Cineworld was forced into a U-turn on its decision not to screen his new movie.
The cinema chain has reversed its original position of not showing the Robert The Bruce film.
READ MORE: Cineworld 'offered Robert the Bruce film' but didn't answer
Tweeting his thanks to those who had fought for it to be shown, Macfadyen said the campaign had reminded him “of Bannockburn”.
Robert The Bruce will be shown at the Glasgow Silverburn, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Falkirk Cineworlds at 5.30pm and 8.30pm this week.
The actor responded to fans who spoke of the success of the drive to have the film shown.
One Twitter user, Richard Fraser, wrote: “For those saying they still won’t see it in Cineworld, you’re proving them right. They’ll say: ‘Well we knew it wouldn’t make money and even after we changed our minds, it still didn’t.’ The idea is we should be rewarding the U-turn and showing them this film has value.”
Responding to the tweet, Macfadyen (pictured above) said: “Richard is right. You have bled with Wallace. Now you have bled with me. Take a rest, my weary troops, and head to the dark cave in @cineworld or @ODEONCinemas or @vuecinemas to see me having a chat with my friend the spider. We shall reconvene soon after for more battles to come.”
A petition to Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger calling for a U-turn reached more than 5500 signatures yesterday.
Organiser Martin Keatings had set a target of 5000 signatures – that number was reached less than two days after it was started.
“Thank you to Scots who cared enough to make this happen,” Macfadyen wrote in response.
SNP politicians Willie Coffey MSP and Carol Monaghan MP, along with Greens MSP Ross Greer and former first minister Alex Salmond, had all questioned Cineworld’s decision.
READ MORE: Alex Salmond calls on Cineworld to show Robert The Bruce film
More than 1300 pledged online that they would never visit a Cineworld screen again in protest at the original decision from the world’s second largest cinema chain.
The campaign to have it shown also received support from Oscar-winning actor Tim Robbins of Shawshank Redemption fame.
The film is already being shown at Odeon cinemas in Ayr, Braehead, Dunfermline, East Kilbride, Edinburgh West, Kilmarnock and Glasgos Quay.
Also screening it is Showcase Paisley and Glasgow, the Macrobert Arts Centre in Stirling, Empire Clydebank, Vue Hamilton, Vue Edinburgh Omni and the New Picture House, St Andrews.
Waterfront Cinema, Greenock, will show it from July 5, while Newton Stewart Cinema will show it on July 12 and 13. A number of other film societies will show it later this month and next – with two English cinemas, in Berwick-upon-Tweed and Northallerton, screening it in August.
Set in 1306, the Robert The Bruce film picks up after Braveheart, featuring stars including Game of Thrones’s Daniel Portman and Jared Harris, who was recently praised for his work in the Chernobyl series.
In the film, Robert the Bruce aims to regain his strength in a bid to “do what is right” and secure Scotland’s freedom.
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