Nick Dermody BBC News Online reporter

The film will examine Thomas' family life

A new film about the life and marriage of the poet Dylan Thomas will not be ready for the festival this autumn marking the 50th anniversary of his death, the movie's director has revealed.

Delays with securing the financial backing for the film, Map of Love, means shooting will not start until September this year, said Chris Monger, who has also written the screenplay.

Monger said an approach to funding bodies in Wales was unsuccessful in landing cash support for the �10m project which is to star Scottish actor Dougray Scott and is being produced by Mick Jagger's production company.

It means the Swansea-based celebrations to mark the passing of Wales' best-known wordsmith will be without the cinematic tale of his most turbulent, creative and ultimately, tragic years.

Film-maker Monger grew up in Taffs Well, near Cardiff, and now lives in Los Angeles where his work as a scriptwriter and director is based.

He revealed the situation on the movie's progress on a visit to Cardiff this month to promote his latest work, the romantic comedy, That Girl From Rio, starring Hugh Laurie.

Dougray Scott has spent time in Laugharne for the role

He said funding for the Map of Love is now in place but the delays in securing it means the finished product will not emerge from the editing suite until early in 2004.

A series of events is planned for Swansea and across south west Wales leading up to November 9, marking the half century since Thomas' untimely alcohol-fuelled death in New York in 1953.

David Woolley, Swansea's Dylan Thomas Festival organiser, said: "Obviously we're disappointed that the film won't be ready this year but we will of course be continuing to celebrate Dylan Thomas beyond 2003 and indeed 2004 will be the 90th anniversary of his birth."

Monger has finished the screenplay for Map of Love, which focuses on Thomas' marriage to Caitlin MacNamara and their hardships as they brought up a family while he was a struggling poet and writer.

After 25 years in the movie industry, he is philosophical about the stop-start nature of the business but offered a side-swipe at what he considers the lack of support from Wales.

He claims that since leaving Cardiff in the early 1980s, where he learnt his trade in a filmmakers' unit based at the city's Chapter Arts Centre, he has not landed any backing for his Hollywood-based projects.

There's something about Thomas that attracts people Chris Monger

Perhaps his most well-known work is the film The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain.

"Englishman is probably the most widely distributed film about Wales," he said.

"It is set in Wales, about a Welsh village, with a largely Welsh cast and stars Hugh Grant - it was all American money, not a dime of Welsh money in it.

"It would be nice to have some Welsh support for projects."

He said funding bodies should make a decision about backing projects either on the basis of their creativity or on the prospect of them returning their investment - but not both - and should be more open and accountable about their thinking.

"There is a danger when funding bodies are asked to act as producers - if people are going to do that, they have to let it be known what criteria they are working with.

"I don't mind which it is, but people have to be accountable."

Whatever the difficulties with Map of Love, Monger confirmed that Dougray Scott is signed up for the project but would not be drawn on claims Emily Watson is tipped for the part of Caitlin.

Thomas

He said: "I can't say who the woman is because the deal has not been done."

But one surprising hopeful for the part has been ruled out - Courtney Love, widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, wanted the role.

It seems she is a Thomas devotee, as was her late husband, who shot himself in 1994, aged 27, at the height of his Seattle-based band's success.

Monger is not surprised that Thomas' work has reached down to an entirely new generation of music artists, decades after his own equally tragic death.

He said: "Ginsberg and the beat poets all saw him. There's something about Thomas that attracts people."