Words Lee Curtis

Gallus – Scots slang for bold, daring, cheeky, reckless.

Look it up in the dictionary and you’ll also find two unlikely Dundee lads who embody it: Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd, dreamers determined to make it as rappers.

Sadly, they’re laughed out of auditions and told nobody wants Scottish rap… so, they flip the script. Reinventing themselves with fake American identities and dodgy accents, they launch a hustle for the ages. The wildest part? Their remix works!

Silibil N’ Brains shatter the glass ceiling. The duo once dismissed as “the rapping Proclaimers” are suddenly proclaimed the next Dre, Snoop, Eminem – the lot. Record deals roll in. They share stages with their hip-hop heroes. They’re living the dream, so long as they can keep up their act.

It sounds like a tall tale, but it’s actually loosely based on a true story – one so outrageous it grabbed James McAvoy and pushed him to make a gallus move of his own. After years onscreen, the BAFTA-winner finally fulfils a dream of his own by stepping behind the camera to direct for the very first time.

McAvoy also jumps on the track for a role of his own in this wild story of ambition and identity that’s best experienced on the big screen, where the beat is loud and larger-than-life.

MC Avoy

A kinship with rappers Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd is what drew James McAvoy in. A proud Scotsman, he sees in them the same roots he came from: council-estate kids who dared to chase their dreams. He’s certainly done that himself – without ever needing to fake it to make it. McAvoy made his mark in Shameless, which paved the way to global stardom as Mr Tumnus in The Chronicles Of Narnia. The buzz was so big, he became the first winner of BAFTA’s Rising Star Award. Two further BAFTA nods followed for The Last King Of Scotland and Atonement – the rest is history. He’s long dreamed of directing and he leapt at the chance to bring a Scottish story so close to his heart to the screen.