Robert Carlyle is currently making his directing debut with the British-Canadian co-production The Legend Of Barney Thomson, and with shooting just underway, the final bits of the cast have fallen into place. Emma Thompson and Ray Winstone have both just joined the roster that includes Brian Pettifer, Tom Courtney, James Cosmo, Ashley Jensen, Martin Compston, Kevin Guthrie and Stephen McCole.
Carlyle himself is playing the title character, a socially awkward Glaswegian barber living a dull life with his wife and mother until he crosses the path of a deranged serial killer. The film is based on The Long Midnight Of Barney Thomson, the first in a series of blackly comic crime novels about the "barbershop death junky" by Douglas Lindsay. Emma Thompson (in old lady make-up by X-Men and Harry Potter alumnus Mark Coulier) is Barney's mum, while Winstone is a copper chasing down the murderer...
There are seven Barney Thomson books in total, so follow-up films are also possible if this one does well. Clearly a passion project for Carlyle, it's not impossible that he'd be up for a revisit.
That's jumping the gun, however, since production on The Legend has only just begun. It's shooting right now in Glasgow, from a screenplay by Colin McLaren (Donkeys) and Richard Cowan (who doesn't seem to have written before, but is an established Assistant Director who worked on Man Of Steel and Cabin In The Woods).
Icon Film Distribution already has the deal in the UK, so we can expect to see The Legend Of Barney Thomson sometime next year.