Helgarpósturinn 11th April 1979

Heiða offered new action movie

Ragnheiður Steindórsdóttir has been offered the lead role in three-part series, which BBC Scotland intends to make this summer, which is as close as possible to a sequel to the film that was shot in Iceland last year, Desmond Bagley´s novel Út í óvissuna [Running Blind].

Ragnheiður has accepted the role, but now it is possible that the British actors’ association [Equity] has opposed a foreigner being given the role, as there is a lot of unemployment among British actors.

“I have almost written off that I will get this role after it was offered”, said Ragnheiður in a conversation with Helgarpósturinn. However she is waiting for a final answer on the outcome of the dispute between the BBC and the actors’ association.

When BBC Scotland bought the rights to Bagley’s novel – Út í óvissuna, they also bought the right to sequel the story with the same protagonists. The sequel series takes place after the former British agent and his Icelandic wife have been happily married for a few years. At the same time, a group of terrorists in Spain are plotting to assassinate a Spanish fascist, but their hitman is killed before he has chance to carry out the assassination.

Nowadays, good help is expensive for the terrorists, if they intend to achieve their mission. They get word about the Scottish agent, so they decide to force him to join them. They kidnap his Icelandic wife and intend to use her as leverage on her husband.

The adventure reaches Spain, where the plot soon becomes know, and both the Soviet secret police KGB and British secret service are drawn into the plot.

The series is to be shot mainly in Spain and it it was planned that the filming would commence on 27 May until 27 July. However, it is clear that there will be a considerable reshuffle in the roles. The lead actor from the previous film, Stuart Wilson, has passed on the role, and in his place there has been talk of a no less well known actor, Jon Finch, who many may know from the role of Macbeth in Polanski’s film. The director will be different from the previous film but has the same producer. The title of the film in English is The Assassination Run.