Project Detail

The Debt Collector

Synopsis

A dark contemporary thriller set in Edinburgh. Nick Dryden has just been released from prison after serving 16 years for murder. In his youth he was Edinburgh's most notorious and violent criminal but his rehabilitation has been remarkable, and now he finds himself a free man once more, married to a successful journalist and much lauded in the art world for his striking and disturbing sculptures. For Gary Keltie, the policeman who arrested him, life has been different. Depressed by the futility of his job and alone in the world apart from his ageing mother, he is outraged by Dryden's new found success and makes it his mission to sabotage it. Flipper, a seriously disturbed adolescent gangster working his way up on the criminal ladder, is also obsessed by Dryden albeit for reasons of hero worship rather than hatred. The three men are on a collision course in this modern Scottish myth showing the extremes of human nature.

Details

Year
1999
Type of project
Features
Format
35mm
Director
Anthony Neilson
Producer
Graham Broadbent, Damian Jones
Director of Photography
Dick Pope BSC
Principal cast
Billy Connolly, Ken Stott, Francesca Annis, Iain Robertson
Screen Writer
Anthony Neilson

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

Dragon Pictures 23 Golden Square London W1R 3PA Tel: 020 7734 6303 Fax: 020 7734 6202

Sales Company

Film Four International 124 Horseferry Road London SW1P 2TX Tel: 020 7306 8602 Fax: 020 7306 8361 Email: sbrucesmith@channel4.co.uk astreet@channel4.co.uk

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

Two men sit side by side in a cinema facing forward VisionQuest

Director: Christopher J. Byrne, Gandja Monteiro, Vincenzo Natali, Terry Matalas

Year: 2026

Marvel Television’s VISIONQUEST is an all-new original series screening on Disney+, which concludes the epic trilogy that began with 2021’s ground-breaking, award-winning WANDAVISION and 2024’s acclaimed AGATHA ALL ALONG. Vision, rebooted and having escaped from those who sought to weaponise him, has been in hiding. Searching for new meaning, he consults the AI personas embedded in his programming, including Friday, Edith, Jarvis, and the infamous Ultron. His discreet existence ends when a bounty placed on his head thrusts him on the run with Thomas Shepard, a mysterious boy who may be Vision’s son, reincarnate. As Vision evades capture, he must confront his nature, resist Ultron's influence, and unravel the enigma that is his young companion if he’s to survive. VISIONQUEST is created for television by Terry Matalas, based on the Marvel Comics. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival Official Selection 2026

Tanya Reynolds in Date Night Date Night

Director: Tanya Reynolds

Year: 2026

Danielle and Harry's latest attempt at roleplay shines an uncomfortable light on what they really want from life. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2026

A woman in red apron sits alone at a table with a face-decorated cake, surrounded by empty stacked chairs Sweet Bitter Sweet

Director: Nicolee Tsin

Year: 2026

Envy, a young Chinese woman searches for love while working at a bakery. When she secretly bakes a cake for her crush, her ideal fantasies of love are confronted by reality. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2026