An actor from south Wales is hoping to emulate the success of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels when his gangster movie opens on Friday.

Andrew Howard, from Cardiff, not only stars in Shooters, but also co-wrote it.

Ioan Gruffudd has a cameo role

Howard recently won the best actor award at the Tokyo International Film Festival for his part in the film Mr In Between, due out this summer.

And he is confident Shooters will be well-received by the general public.

"No matter what the genre or the type of film it is, if it is a good, interesting character-driven, well-written piece, then people are going to want to see it," said Howard.

"There is definitely an audience for our film," he added.

"It is a slow-burner, it is not a big commercial film in the way that Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was," said Howard.

"And it's not a pastiche - it is a gritty crime thriller."

Welsh stars

In the film, Howard, who also starred in the TV mini-series Band of Brothers and 2000's Rancid Aluminium, plays J, a small-time hustler.

J is reunited with an old friend called Gilly, who has just been released from prison

Gilly has been serving time for J's crimes, and the movie follows the relationship between the two, which ultimately ends in betrayal.

Welsh stars Matthew Rhys, Ioan Gruffudd and Jason Hughes also appear in the movie.

But Gruffudd, the clean-cut star of Hornblower and 102 Dalmations, is barely recognisable in a cameo role as a bearded gunrunner.

Gruffudd says he was delighted to break away from his usual roles, and explained how the film was not just an action picture.

"The film is about the consequences of crime and the pain that develops as a consequence of a life of crime," he said.