KENNETH Branagh is a busy kind of chap, always on the go.

You can tell this immediately on meeting him, all bright eyed and press junketing tail, even without considering his joining of the Royal Shakespeare Company at 23, the dozens of roles in film, theatre and television since his star-making Play for Today debut, the 17 pictures he has directed, the eight he has written, and the five Oscar nominations.

But what really brings home the notion that Branagh, knighted in 2012, cannot sit still for a nanosecond is that while directing Cinderella, a live action version of Disney's 1950 classic, he somehow found the time with writer Chris Weitz to put together a separate script for the mice, led by the famously greedy Gus Gus, whose belly is only rivalled for size by his good heart.

"It's all there," says Branagh, laughing. "There's a whole drama. It is heavily cheese related, it is much to do with the acquisition of more cheese than your fellow mouse, and his journey through the piece is whether he is at any point prepared to give up eating to do something for the good of others. It's an inspirational tale woven into the fabric of the story."

Perhaps he is joking, but one suspects not. In the film business, fortune favours the driven, and it is certainly favouring Branagh at the moment. Ahead of its release in the UK tomorrow, his film has already made more than $250 million overseas, with $52 million of that coming from the all-important China market. The Belfast-born, British director of Thor ($449 million gross) has another hit on his hands, one that might, just might, help to make up for disappointments in the past.

Whether Gus Gus was in the movie was one of the many questions Branagh faced after it was announced he was taking on the story of the sweet girl treated abominably by her step family. The original film, 65 years old this year, put Disney into the big league of studios, making $34 million (a fortune then) on the back of an equally eye-popping investment of $3 million.

Branagh recalls his own childhood spent watching Disney films and knew that the pictures were the stuff of strong affections.

"I got a tremendous reaction from lots and lots of grown ups as well as every kind of variety of man, woman and child that made me feel that the story was very personal to people, and whatever their age they might have seen, or read, or currently have read to them an account of the story. In a strange way, although people have talked about the fact that it has been done many times there seems to be a sort of ritual in that that is necessary."

So he was not about to do too much tinkering, then. What Branagh particularly wanted to convey was that Cinderella's kindness in the face of cruelty was not weakness but a sort of super power. He acknowledges that is not how society often sees kindness.

"Curious that, isn't it? I've seen a film director once walk up with a very beady look to an actor saying please do not confuse my kindness for weakness, and you knew that was just a little warning from a guy who was about to lose it. Also that particular guy had what I've never had which is this gift of fantastic articulacy when angry. I just splutter. I look like Basil Fawlty when I'm angry."

There are no tales of Basil Fawlty-like behaviour from the set, however, with Scotland's James Madden, who plays the prince, going so far as to say he modelled his character on Branagh.

""Every day was like a masterclass in acting, not just what he was teaching us but how he conducted himself on set. He is the ultimate gentleman. He makes people feel at ease and very comfortable, he's very interested and interesting."

On the back of hits such as Thor, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, and now Cinderella, Branagh, 54, is proving extremely interesting to Hollywood at the moment. Long gone are the Nineties days of Ken and Em, when Branagh and his former wife Emma Thompson were lauded and teased in equal measure as the king and queen of British drama. Today, Branagh is still racking up the Oscar nominations (his latest for playing Larry, dear Larry, Olivier in My Week with Marilyn) and the acclaimed stage performances (Macbeth in New York being the latest) while directing blockbusters. Living the dream, then, while not quite leaving the more nightmarish times behind. This emerges when he is asked how he has lasted so long in a business notorious for chewing up careers.

It's all about being prepared for anything, he says, including the necessity to move on. "This is nice," he says. "We had a lovely opening weekend for Cinderella last weekend and that was great. I think I was sitting here 20 years ago when we had a catastrophic opening weekend for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and that wasn't nice. I felt equally proud of the films and I felt pretty vulnerable at that time but I remember thinking that was really quite a formative experience, of putting one foot in front of the other and going round the world to be told how bad the film was. It was interesting just getting that every day. After that you choose to get back on the horse or not."

That was 1994 and of course he did get back on, regaining the early success of Peter's Friends and building on it with the likes of Hamlet. There was still the odd slip (an ill-advised remake of Sleuth) but by and large it has been good times since. His advice to any young actor?

"I'd say the secret was be early, be ready, say thank you. Say thank you because that will make you feel good when that is in reaction to sometimes incredible humiliations. Be ready because you might be asked to do something when that director hasn't shown up for the audition and you get two minutes walking down the corridor with him and the casting director says grab him now before he goes and you need to be able to dance the dance or whatever. And be early because it's polite and things change."

As for how he bounced back from Mary Shelley, he says it is all about taking "the 20,000 feet view", putting things in perspective.

"You see it for what it is. There are lots of useful layers to that, like you go away and think well what was it that people didn't like, oh I see, oh I couldn't understand that at the time because I was too close to it, now I see this and that. And also you think people like other things I've done and some people liked this. A little perspective, and also accept it's good that you feel these things, you are passionately involved, your skin is exposed as a result and it's okay, it's all okay."

Cinderella opens in cinemas tomorrow