Irvine Welsh takes new direction with film debut

Irvine Welsh is to direct his first feature film, the tale of a lager-fuelled gang of football hooligans.

Welsh, the author of Trainspotting, is writing the original story for the film, called Soul Crew. Although Welsh's only experience as a director was in the making of a pop video, a number of films have been based on his fiction, including the 1996 film version of Trainspotting, The Acid House (1998) and Dockers (1999).

Soul Crew is one of a slate of new titles announced by the British production company 4Way Pictures. Welsh is a director, along with the co-founders Antonia Bird, a film director, the actor Robert Carlyle and Mark Cousins, a critic and broadcaster. Welsh has two other projects in the 4Ways pipeline.

While drugs loom large in Welsh's fiction and he has never denied that he learnt about them from experience, Bird, the film's executive producer, said that "although he likes to party, he's one of most diligent workers I've come across. He'll love being a director because he's a sort of 24/7 guy."