Joke idea morphs into mutant midges film project

AI-generated concept art for the horror film, Midgies

What started out as a jokey suggestion for a midges horror movie now has a script, a director, a producer - and a plan to begin filming next year.

Fort William-based author and screenwriter Barry Hutchison only posted his idea for mutant flesh-eating midgies on social media in late June, while finishing a book.

"It did go a bit crazy," said Hutchison, who writes crime novels under the name JD Kirk.

"My phone didn't stop ringing for two weeks with people who wanted to find out more about it - journalists, TV producers and lots of different people who were caught up with the idea of mutant killer midgies."

Filming of scenes for the horror could start next year

Hutchison, who has written 200 books, added: "When I usually walk around Fort William people will stop me and ask about the latest book.

"But all I have had in the last month is people going: 'Oh, what is happening with the midgies?'"

Glasgow-based film-maker Alessio Avezzano was among those whose imagination was gripped by the idea of monstrous midges.

Avezzano said: "I immediately thought it was like lightning in a bottle, and why didn't this already exist?

"I reached out to Barry for his sake, to reiterate 'you have to write this quickly'."

Avezzano said he was worried someone else might steal the idea.

He added: "It was an unusual situation to have national newspapers talking about a film-maker's concept. There was pressure to get on it."

With encouragement from Avezzano, Hutchison wrote the draft script in a week, some of it while "locked away" in a Glasgow hotel room.

The plot for the film, called Midgies, centres on a mum and her teenage daughter on a road trip through the Highlands.

The journey turns into a fight for survival after they encounter deadly swarm of midges.

The film's plot centres around a mum and her teenage daughter

Hutchison has asked Avezzano to join the project as director after finding they had the same tastes in film, and a similar sense of humour.

Born in Italy and raised in Scotland, Avezzano has worked as a commercial director for brands including Irn Bru, Ikea and Porsche.

He made his TV debut last year as the writer and director of the BBC sitcom Islelanders.

Hutchison and Avezzano have now been joined by Mick Betancourt, a writer and producer from Chicago who has worked on 24 shows, including Prime Video's crime series Reacher and The Purge action-horrors.

The next stages include putting together a cast, before filming potentially next year in the Scottish Highlands - the home of the real-life Highland biting midge.

Avezzano said: "A challenge closer to the time will be filming at an ideal time of the year in the Highlands - and also battling with actual midgies."

Hutchison added: "There will be scenes when we don't want midgies because we'll building up the tension."

He joked: "There will be more money spent on digitally removing actual midgies than adding them in."

Blood meal

Real-life biting midges are well-known to residents and visitors of Scotland, particularly the Highlands.

The tiny flies are often encountered on mild, damp summer evenings, and are the scourge of campers and hillwalkers.

Female midges gather in swarms of millions as they seek out a blood meal to feed their eggs, leaving many of their human "victims" with red, itchy sores.

Scotland is also home to an estimated 10,000 species of non-biting midges.