Would Trainspotting Get Made Today? A Festival Panel Puts Classic British Films to the 2026 Test
Could Trainspotting find financing in 2026? Would The Wicker Man get a green light? A festival panel hosted by Wendy Mitchell asked five industry figures to pretend a stack of classic British films had just landed on their desks — and then argue whether each one survives the modern market.
The panel, reported by Variety on 15 August 2026, brought together Christine Vachon of Killer Films, Picturehouse creative director Clare Binns, Film4 head of distribution and sales Stefanie Fahrion, BBC Film commissioning executive Alice Ojha, and Simon Renshaw of the talent agency Casarotto. The format was simple: take films that became landmarks — Trainspotting, Local Hero, Ratcatcher, The Wicker Man — and pitch them as if nobody had ever heard of them.
Vachon said Trainspotting could be framed as "genre or genre adjacent" and was not risky at the right price. Fahrion agreed the film had enough iconic moments and shock value to generate a "talking factor" and "FOMO" — the fear of missing out — around scenes audiences would feel they had to see, and would likely be virally shared today. Renshaw called it "a big swing" but "something that's going to get people talking." Binns recalled Danny Boyle's earlier Shallow Grave as "one of the most exciting films I ever saw," a film that announced "a new voice."
Local Hero drew a harder line. Vachon said it would not attract American equity money or a pre-buy — a deal where a distributor pays in advance for rights before the film is finished — unless it had a very big star attached. Her prescription: build it with as much soft money, meaning public funding and tax incentives, as possible, then sell it to the US at a high price. Binns noted that older cinemagoers remain underserved and predicted Local Hero would be a word-of-mouth film.
The conversation around Ratcatcher, Lynne Ramsay's 1999 debut, turned to how first-time film-makers clear the jump from short films to features. Renshaw said a known cast is often crucial in getting financiers and distributors comfortable enough to commit. Fahrion observed that voices as unique and challenging as Ramsay's frequently originate with public development or production money in the UK. Vachon, the American on the panel, joked about the gap between the two systems: "What is this public funding of which you speak?" She suggested the session's real title should be "How the fuck would you get this movie made in America?" and estimated Ratcatcher could be made for about $300,000.
The Wicker Man met the most optimism. Vachon said it is "exactly what the A24s, Neons, etc. are looking for right now" — independent distributors known for distinctive, lower-budget genre fare. Renshaw said it could be made inexpensively. Binns pointed to a casting hook: the original featured Richard Chamberlain, then a television star, "doing something new, different for him." The film was originally packaged by British Lion as the secondary feature to Don't Look Now.
Renshaw also shared what he called the worst pitch he ever received: "'The Sixth Sense,' but it's a dog."
For anyone who loves these films, the panel offered a bracing exercise. The movies endured. But the question was never whether they were good — it was whether the people who write the cheques would take the chance.
