The infamous hip-hop hoaxers from Angus will join a line-up of big names at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd from Arbroath duped music industry executives into believing they were LA-born rappers Silibil N’ Brains, and a film of their exploits will get its European premiere at the 67th annual event in the capital.
In March, the documentary the Great Hip Hop Hoax was screened at the South by South West Festival in Austin, Texas, following on from Gavin’s book California Schemin’.
The unlikely stars will join Harry Potter star Emma Watson, Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt and Game of Thrones’ Natalie Dormer on the Edinburgh cast list after major new movies were confirmed in the line-up at the event’s launch.
Ciaran Hinds, Charlotte Rampling, Steve Coogan, Martin Freeman, Maxine Peake, Brenda Fricker and James Fox are among the other British film stars who have new films coming to the festival next month.
The festival, the second led by artistic director Chris Fujiwara, features 146 films from 53 countries, including 14 world premieres, six international premieres and 10 European premieres.
Mr Fujiwara said the line-up builds on the success of last year’s festival, which was praised for rejuvenating the event after criticism in 2011.
Launching the programme at the Filmhouse, he said it now achieves a “better balance” between the familiar and uncharted in cinema.
“Every year the programme effort is an attempt to achieve a balance of many different kinds of films,” he said.
What I wanted to do, and what we have achieved, was to put together a very rich programme of varied films from around the world whose commonality is their artistic excellence.”
Speaking about building on the success of 2012, he said: “We took a lot of risks with our programme last year, bringing in a large number of films by filmmakers who were unfamiliar, even to well-informed film viewers.
“The response, I am happy to say, convinced us that there is a desire and a need felt by people to have access to the sorts of films that we want to programme.
“That has definitely informed this year.
“I would say that in a way we have a better balance this year between the relatively uncharted and the relatively familiar so that I think audiences looking at our programme this year will find quite a bit that is within their zone of familiarity and we hope to encourage them to fully explore that and then also stretch out and look into the other areas.”
The festival opens with the European premiere of Breathe In starring Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce and closes with the world premiere of Scottish romantic comedy Not Another Happy Ending starring Karen Gillan and Stanley Webber.