JAMES Gandolfini, the actor famous for his lead role in mob drama The Sopranos, has died in Italy, according to his managers.

HIS only previous visit here was to shoot a mobile phone advert. Now one of America’s leading young film-makers has found himself in the glare of the spotlight at Scotland’s flagship film festival - along with one of Britain’s rising screen stars.

THE Edinburgh International Film Festival gets off to a disappointingly dreary start tonight with Breathe In, a seen-it-all-before tale of infidelity that does nothing to subvert expectations beyond inadvertently draining any drama out of the situation with its dialled-down approach.

In 1951 a deaf factory worker from Aberdeenshire embarked on a solo cycling trip from his home to the Arctic Circle – 3000 miles away. Now the story of his remarkable journey has been made into a film set for its UK premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival tomorrow.

THE 67th Edinburgh International Film Festival opens tomorrow with Breathe In at the Festival Theatre, and if monster-sized sequels, Hollywood heists and Scottish romcoms are your thing, then this one’s for you.

The pick of the best one-off events and festivals in Scotland this week, including the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Royal Highland Show, St Magnus International Festival, Insider Festival and Scottish Traditional Boats Festival.

WHEN Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy and director Richard Linklater hooked up for Before Sunrise (1995), little did they realise their unassuming tale of an American traveller and a French student who meet on a train, and then spend an impromptu evening together in Vienna, talking, walking and falling in love, would be the start of a project that could well continue for as long as they are still able to work and raise funds for the movies.

Another attempt to relaunch Superman into the movie skies, this time with uncharismatic Henry Cavill in the lead, propped up by a roster of famous names, including Russell Crowe as a superdad who rides dragonflies, Kevin Costner as a more homespun adopted father, and Amy Adams as a surprisingly spiritless Lois Lane.

Eighteen years ago, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy teamed up with director Richard Link­later to make what is probably the chattiest movie romance ever.

Diehards may mourn the lack of entrails but this is more of a suspense movie than a gorefest

YOU don’t get many chances to use the names Princess Diana and Hitler in the same sentence, so I’m relishing this one.

An Edinburgh Film Festival documentary reveals why we are in a golden age for screen depictions of children. Director Mark Cousins tells Andrew Eaton-Lewis how he became the toast of Cannes

It HAS taken a long time to bring the world’s most iconic superhero to the big screen in a form that’s appropriate for the current golden age of comic book movies. Right out of the gate, Richard Donner’s 1978 film Superman: The Movie got so much right that messing with it seemed like sacrilege – to the point where Bryan Singer’s nostalgic 2006 pseudo sequel Superman Returns backed itself into a reverential corner by casting someone to play Christopher Reeve rather than Clark Kent.

WHAT do Linda Lovelace, Dr Seuss and Freddie Mercury all have in common?

When Neil Platt was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, he knew he would not see his baby boy grow up. So, in the finite time he had left, he made a film of the family’s final year together so that one day his son might piece together a picture of the father he never knew.

A documentary about the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster in which 167 people died has its world premiere in Edinburgh next week. Scotsman journalist Stephen McGinty, the producer and author of the book on which the film is based, has one hope – that it reveals the heroism and tragedy of that night

Alistair Harkness reviews the latest cinema releases

Sully and Mike are back in the long-awaited follow-up to Monsters Inc. Its director reassures Alistair Harkness that it is a story worth telling

The Edinburgh International Film Festival kicks off next week, and our critic Alistair Harkness recommends 20 of the most promising offerings

BRAD Pitt has to save his screen family from flesh-eating zombies in his latest film, World War Z. Shereen Low finds out why, in real life, the actor would risk everything for his nearest and dearest.