BALD EAGLES RAGE AT MOVIE PAY; Extras ordered to shave heads: EXCLUSIVE.

Byline: JENNY McBAIN

FED-UP extras have quit a pounds 10million Hollywood film being shot in the Highlands ... after being asked to shave their heads.

Locals working on Roman epic The Eagle Of The Ninth are furious that they are not being paid any extra for their sacrifice.

Key scenes are due to be shot on Wednesday in Achiltibuie, near Ullapool, but the pay row is a headache for producers.

The film, directed by Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald, features Hollywood legend Donald Sutherland and Billy Elliot star Jamie Bell . But around 100 extras claim they are being asked to work 12-hour days for just pounds 85. One has already quit in disgust after being asked to shave off his hair.

Jeweller Myke Calder, 57, of Elphin, Sutherland, said: "It's exploitative in the sense that they have sold the whole Hollywood thing and everyone got excited.

"But I was told to get rid of all my hair for nothing extra."

"There is a sense that if they are up in the hills among the yokels they can take the mick."

Dozens of star-struck locals signed up as extras but insiders claim more are ready to quit over the paltry pay. The Eagle Of The Ninth centres on a Roman soldier's mission to recapture the emblem of his father's vanished legion.

It also stars CSI: Miami favourite Channing Tatum and Scots actor Douglas Henshall.

It is the second Roman epic being filmed in the Highlands this year with Centurion, starring former model Olga Kurylenko, already in the can.

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CAPTION(S):

Hairy movie: Myke, right, has quit Highland film set in disgust Romans in the gloaming: Olga, Jamie and Donald