'THE TOURNAMENT" IS UNDERWAY

It is hard to dissociate Robert Carlyle from his Trainspotting persona, even though he has since played roles as varied as a highwayman and a virus plagued father.

It is his experience as the cavalier highwayman, in Plunkett & Macleane, that is likely to come in most useful for his role in The Tournament, which is now filming.

An action thriller billed as "a grown-up Battle Royale", it tells of the fight between the world's greatest assassins, with foreign contributions from New Yorker Ving Rhames and Hawaii's Kelly Hu.

Setting for the shoot is Bulgaria, with Scott Mann calling for "Action" on his first-time feature film following the success of his short Tug of War. The connection? Hmmm. Tug was billed as "a naughty, fun film - in the great British Carry On tradition of cheeky film-making and featured a competition between guys to see who could go the longest without engaging in 'self love'.

Now there are two guys and a girl competing to see how long they can go without killing each other.

Assuming Carlyle survives this assassination shoot out, he will move to Cardiff this autumn to work in a similar vein for Welsh writer / director Justin (Human Traffic) Kerrigan in his new film I Know You Know.

The coming-of-age drama is about a boy who is fascinated by his father's espionage work until the world of spies becomes all too real.

Filed July 12, 2007