Danny the Dog: Hollywood stars head for Scotland (Hollywood)

BRIAN PENDREIGH

HOLLYWOOD glamour is heading for Glasgow with a big-budget action thriller to be shot in the city, starring Morgan Freeman, Jet Li, the cult martial arts star, and Bob Hoskins, the British actor.

Danny the Dog will cost about £28m, making it one of the most expensive films to shoot in Scotland.

It is a further boost to the local industry that last year pumped £20m into the economy.

The Europa Corporation is making the film with backing from 20th Century Fox. "The situation is rather complicated ... But it is going to be shot in Glasgow," one insider at the corporation's Paris HQ said.

Europa is the company of Luc Besson, the French director whose films include The Big Blue, Nikita and Leon. He co-wrote Danny the Dog with Robert Mark Kamen, with whom he also collaborated on Bruce Willis's 1997 sci-fi epic, The Fifth Element.

Besson is expected to serve as producer, with the director being Louis Leterrier.

Li has established a fanatical following among western teen-agers with his Asian martial arts movies.

Freeman's Hollywood career stretches over more than 20 years and includes such classics as Driving Miss Daisy, Glory, Unforgiven and The Shawshank Redemption.

Hoskins is the star of such films as The Long Good Friday, Mona Lisa and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

As well as shooting in Glasgow, Danny the Dog will be made in studios in France, but all three stars are expected to be involved in the Scottish leg of production. Filming is scheduled to start at the end of the month.