MacAskill, 24, became a YouTube phenomenon after a video was posted of him performing daredevil stunts.
He has now been offered a lucrative deal by the team behind the last Indiana Jones movie.
In the movie, Premium Rush – which begins filming in Manhattan in April – a group of bike messengers are pursued through New York by a criminal gang. It is being made by American writer and director David Koepp, whose film credits include blockbusters Spider-Man, and is expected on the big screen next year.
Koepp invited MacAskill to perform all the film’s stunts after he viewed the YouTube clip that shows MacAskill perform gravity-defying acts such as cycling up and down trees and somersaulting off roofs. The clip has attracted more than 13 million hits since it was posted last year and has earned MacAskill a host of celebrity fans, including seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong.
Although MacAskill initially rejected offers to appear on American and British talk shows, he has gone on to feature in adverts for Volkswagen and recruitment website s1jobs.com, part of the Herald group. He has also wowed audiences around the world with live demonstrations.
The film offer comes two months after MacAskill had to temporarily abandon stunts after breaking his collarbone when he tripped on a kerb while walking.
MacAskill, from Skye, now lives in Edinburgh. He said: “The past 12 months have been an amazing roller-coaster ride, but having a Hollywood director phone me up and ask me to be in his film is beyond crazy. The idea of being in a major film is a million miles away from my old life of working in a bike shop in Edinburgh.
“It’s a great opportunity but I am finding the whole thing difficult to take in.”
He added: “If I can earn some money from the film it will keep me going for the future and give me some security if I get injured.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article