To say Ninian Dunnett is excited is rather like saying Big Country battered out a couple of passable tunes back in the day.

Forty years ago, Dunnett was a 24-year-old journalist who wrote a screenplay based on notes he’d scribbled wistfully on a restaurant’s menu card. But on entering his script for a bank’s screenwriting competition, incredibly, EMI turned Restless Natives into a movie.

However, the initial euphoria enjoyed by the writer, and producer and director Andy Paterson and Michael Hoffman, was short lived. The film wasn’t just reviewed badly by members of Dunnett’ own Estate it was “trashed in a way that very nearly took us out of the industry.” Restless Natives didn’t even make the Edinburgh Film Festival cut in 1985 - despite being set in that same city.

But over the years, the perception of Restless Natives altered imperceivably (aided by declarations of love from the likes of Jack Black and James McAvoy) to the point it is now ready to transfer onto the stage.

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Restless Natives will play out as a musical, utilising a Big Country soundtrack. And Dunnett can’t quite believe the rollicking road movie tale - two young Scots turn highwaymen and rob tourist buses – has gone on such an amazing, yet protracted journey.

“There had been talk of a (theatre) remake over the years, but to be honest, I never saw a reason for doing it,” he admits. “But I began to think about the characters, how they work, and realised the language of the musical gives you the........

© Herald Scotland