This year's Edinburgh film festival will open with the directorial debut of one of the nation's best known actors, Robert Carlyle.

The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) will open its 69th edition with The Legend of Barney Thomson, on June 17.

The showing will be the world premiere for the movie, which stars Carlyle as well as Emma Thompson and Ray Winstone.

The film is described as a "darkly humorous" thriller, set in Glasgow.

The gala will be a red carpet affair at the Festival Theatre.

Tickets go on sale for the film tomorrow.

Starring alongside Carlyle, Thompson and Winstone are Tom Courtenay, Ashley Jensen, Martin Compston, Brian Pettifer, Kevin Guthrie, James Cosmo, Stephen McCole and Samuel Robertson, with a screenplay by Colin McLaren and Richard Cowan.

Carlyle said: "After a career-long association with EIFF it gives me enormous pleasure to have The Legend of Barney Thomson chosen as Opening Night film.

"It really is such an honour for me to have my first feature as director premiered here in Edinburgh at the Festival that has played such a huge part in my life."

The film is based on the book The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson by Douglas Lindsay.

The film comedy tells the story of Barney, played by Carlyle, as an awkward barber who inadvertently stumbles into serial murder, with both absurd and macabre consequences.

Barney's mother Cemolina, played by Thompson, also plays a key role in the film, which leads to a "bloody and comedic chain of events.

Winstone plays a police officer caught up in the macabre events.

The film is released in cinemas in the late summer of this year.

Mark Adams, the new Artistic Director of EIFF said: "We are thrilled to be opening this year's Festival with Robert Carlyle's wonderful black comedy.

"It is a marvellously macabre and playful film, impressively directed and with a terrific cast.

"It is the perfect film to kick off what promises to be an exciting festival."

The full programme for the film festival will be announced in the coming weeks.

Adams is in his first year at the helm of the festival, taking over from previous director Chris Fujiwara.