THE filming of the movie adaptation of one of Scotland's best-loved novels will begin in Aberdeenshire later this month.

Shooting has already begun abroad on the production of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song, which stars Peter Mullan and Agyness Deyn as the lead character, Chris Guthrie.

Scenes have been shot in Luxembourg and New Zealand and the movie will come to Aberdeenshire in late April for two weeks.

The film is being directed by Terence Davies, known for The House of Mirth, which was shot in Glasgow, Distant Voice, Still Lives and the Deep Blue Sea.

Creative Scotland, the national arts and film funding body, has given £450,000 towards the film's budget.

Bob Last, the Scottish-based producer of the movie, said the production was going "very well".

Deyn, an actress and model from Rochdale, near Manchester, who has featured on the cover of fashion magazines like Vogue, said: "When I read the script I fell completely in love with the character and the story.

"I'm so honoured and excited to be working with Terence - he's such an incredible director. I just hope that I can do Chris Guthrie justice."

The director had previously said that the filming of the movie in different countries was necessary in order to capture the different seasons in the book.

The book, regarded as one of the greatest Scottish novels of the last century, tells the story of Chris Guthrie growing up in fictional Kinraddie in the Mearns in the north-east of Scotland.

The novel forms part of the trilogy A Scots Quair.

It was previously made into a television series by the BBC in 1971 and has also been produced as a stage play.

A Creative Scotland spokeswoman said: "We are delighted to have invested in partnership with the BFI, Luxembourg Film Fund and BBC Scotland on this cultural project to realise a classic Scottish novel.

"It's great to see an iconic and well-known Scottish story being translated to the big screen by an internationally renowned director."

Mr Last, who also produced The Illusionist, said the seasons of the year were an important part of the novel and could not be captured in one location without using digital effects.

Harvest scenes were shot in New Zealand and the shooting of interiors, as well as a First World War trench, were shot in Luxembourg where the production was based for a month.