Branagh goes alien with 'Trainspotters'

Kenneth Branagh is on the point of signing up to star in the latest film by the Trainspotting trio of director Danny Boyle, producer Andrew Macdonald and writer John Hodge.

Branagh is set to star in Alien Love Triangle, a sci-fi comedy filmed in three parts that starts shooting at Elstree Studios in February. The segment filmed by Boyle and friends will tell the tale of a man who discovers that his wife is in fact a male from another planet.

The film is being produced by Miramax, the art-house subsidiary of Disney, which set up its own UK studio last year under the former head of Channel 4 films, David Aukin.

Alien Love Triangle will be shot in three separate pieces by different directing and writing teams in a similar way to the Eighties film New York Stories which was made in different parts by directors including Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese. The other two directing and writing teams are yet to be confirmed.

Branagh will also star in the new Robert Altman film, The Gingerbread Man, which has been written by John Grisham and will be released in the UK in June. - Paul McCann, Media Correspondent