Kevin Macdonald, the Director of Neil Marshall being another name who has voiced interest, to bring the story to film. The story at The Scotsman says that he told Scotland on Sunday:

"I am definitely going to return to Scotland to direct a film version of The Eagle Of The Ninth. It is a book that I absolutely loved as a child...We are beginning to think about the cast and the idea is to use American actors for the Romans and to use Scots and other Celts for the Pictish people."

He describes it as a Scottish Western in a mixture of epic costume drama and The Searchers. To me that sounds superb, and the story is a wonderful one which marks one of the great untold stories from Scotland's past.

the novel tells the story of a young Roman officer who tries to discover the truth behind what happened to the famed Ninth Legion, a famed fighting force in the Roman Army who were stationed at the border with Northern Britain and just disappeared, never to be seen again, not a single one.

Rosemary Sutcliff wrote the novel in 1954 and it sold more than a million copies and was made into a well received BBC television series which was shot in Aberdeenshire (where I've spent most of my life) in 1977, as well as becoming a Radio series.

This would seem to suit Kevin Macdonald's style well, and it seems to have found a time in Hollywood too. Perhaps this will get told after all. Jeremy Brock co-wrote The Last King of Scotland and wrote Mrs Brown, and is hard at work writing the script for this story.