LORD OF the Rings star Billy Boyd has given his backing to the founding of a new Hollywood-style film studio in Scotland.

The Glaswegian actor was at DCA in Dundee on Saturday for the official launch of Discovery—Scotland’s first international film festival for children and young people, of which he is patron.

The festival is aimed at encouraging youngsters to enjoy cinema and get themselves involved in the creation of new film projects.

Boyd, who starred as fun-loving Hobbit Pippin in the Tolkien trilogy and has just completed shooting a film with Peter Mullan and Brenda Blethyn in Glasgow, said he believed Scotland had the talent to support a major movie studio.

Ambitious plans for a £250 million studio complex to be created in Perthshire met with significant local resistance when they were publicly unveiled last year.

Proposals for the studio at Aberuthven included a set with four sound stages, approximately 200 houses, time-share units for visiting studio users, a hotel, golf course and artificial loch.

Mr Boyd said he believed a Scottish studio complex would drive the film industry forward to new heights.

He said, “I think that (a Scottish studio) would be a great idea.

“We have seen it already, with something like Braveheart, how stories from Scotland can touch the world.

“We have got to push that forward and I think a studio would be a great way forward.”

The actor also praised the young people involved in the Discovery festival and said the Scottish film industry should “think big”.

Running from September 4 to 19 at DCA and Stirling’s MacRobert Arts Centre, before touring nine venues across the country, the festival features films from more than 20 countries.

Among the work shown on Saturday was the First Light premiere, consisting of two films made by young people involved in the Pier Education Project, based at the Shore, Dundee, and one made by pupils from Webster’s High School in Kirriemuir.

Also premiered at DCA were two new episodes of BBC Scotland’s popular children’s programme, Balamory.

Tickets for the festival are available from DCA on 01382-909900.