IT IS ONE OF THE MOST EAGERLY ANTICIPATED SCOTTISH FEATURE films ever, with American star Scarlett Johansson in the title role of Mary Queen of Scots.The £25 million movie has a top Australian director and a team of producers from Hollywood, London and Dublin. Irish locations and soldiers are lined up for the battle scenes. Writers from England, South Africa and Australia have all worked on the script.

It is a truly international production. The only thing missing is a Scot.

Iain Smith, the Glasgow-born, London-based producer, whose resumé of Hollywood blockbusters includes Entrapment, Planet Of The Apes and Children Of Men, has left the production following disagreements with others in the production team.

"It's commercially sensitive," he said. "All I can say is that I'm no longer involved."

Asked what he thought about the apparent disappearance of key Scottish elements from the mix, he added: "That's an observation. I really can't comment. Phone Capitol Films, who are the company who are supposed to be making the film."

Capitol Films, a London company, declined to comment on Smith's departure or the absence of Scottish input.

The project originated in Scotland in the mid-1990s, around the time of Braveheart, when Scottish producers Catherine Aitken and Gill Parry commissioned a script from Cracker writer Jimmy McGovern. Sean Connery joined the project as co-producer.

Aitken said they sold the rights to Warner Brothers and were no longer directly involved.

The project evolved into a TV two-parter, which was shot on the cheap in Romania in 2003. The original screenplay was left gathering dust in Hollywood until it was spotted by Scarlett Johansson, star of Girl With A Pearl Earring and Lost In Translation.

The revived project was announced at the Cannes Film Festival last year, with Iain Smith playing a central role. His departure leaves the character of Mary as one of the very few Scottish elements in the film. Even the film's historical expert is English.

Despite reports that shooting was imminent, there have been a number of setbacks and disagreements. Other key members of the team have departed recently, including the director and writer, and the script is currently being rewritten.

The new director, Phillip Noyce, whose previous films include Patriot Games and The Bone Collector, said: "It certainly won't be in the summer. It's later in the year or next year.

"It might shoot in Ireland, just because of the availability of Irish army personnel for the battle scenes." He said he still expected to shoot some scenes in Scotland. However, it is understood the film is likely to shoot in Ireland for six or seven weeks and Scotland for only three.

BRAVEHEART was also shot in Ireland and used Irish soldiers as extras, a move that prompted controversy and ultimately led to the establishment of the national film agency Scottish Screen.

Naoise Barry of the Irish Film Board was quoted in the Irish Times as saying: "We have fought hard to entice this film to Ireland, working closely with the minister for arts, sport and tourism Seamus Brennan, the department of defence and the Irish army in putting together a strong pitch."

One Scottish film industry insider said: "It looks like poaching, but film is very competitive. Productions go where they can get the best deal."

A Scottish Screen spokesman said: "We believe discussions are still ongoing as to where the feature will shoot. No comment on the poaching.

"Our soldiers do have important commitments elsewhere that Ireland possibly does not share, so we would be less able to give a production this kind of resource."

Her comment was echoed by an Army spokesman who said: "We're extremely busy in two major campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, and this will preclude allocating resources to this venture."

McGovern's script still provides the core of the movie. It begins with Mary's return from France to a Scotland riven by internal conflict. It focuses on her relationship with the Earl of Bothwell and has been described as an "epic love story" and a "psychological romance".

Noyce said: "The attraction is the character of Mary. She is greatly misunderstood. I see her as a reforming queen who threatened the status quo in Scotland and outside and had to be destroyed."

Mary's story has repeatedly attracted film-makers, but previous attempts to bring it to the big screen have ended in disappointment. Katharine Hepburn was Mary in a 1936 film, Mary Of Scotland, directed by John Ford, whose specialism was westerns, and Vanessa Redgrave played the role in 1972.

Alexander Mackendrick, the American-born Scot who directed Whisky Galore! and the classic Sweet Smell Of Success, spent decades trying to make a film about Mary. He worked on scripts with James Kennaway and Gore Vidal and got as far as building sets in 1968 when Universal pulled the plug.