POP stars All Saints have signed up with Blackburn film producer Gary Smith to make a multi-million pound movie.

Three singers from the all-girl group, Nicole and Natalie Appleton and Melanie Blatt, will star in the film Honest, to be directed by former Eurythmics mastermind Dave Stewart.

Gary, 41, a former pupil of Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn, said: "The girls play three East End sisters in the 1960s who dress up as men and go round robbing warehouses and shops.

"On one of the robberies, Nicole gets caught by an American student who has dropped out of Oxford. We haven't decided who will play him yet.

"Nicole and Natalie really are sisters and Melanie is their best friend so they are just perfect for the part. It's very exciting."

Fourth All Saint Shaznay Lewis, the only band member not to have been to stage school, will not appear in the film.

Gary will be executive producer for the £4.2 million film and shooting will start in the summer. It will be premiered at the glamorous Cannes film festival in June 2000.

It's the most expensive film Gary's independent production company, Winchester Films, has produced for several years but previous hits include the comedy romance Shooting Fish and the drama Divorcing Jack. Gary, whose parents Ray and Sylvia still live in Ramsgreave Drive, Blackburn, is also working on a film version of the children's cartoon favourite Mr Benn.

John Hannah, Scottish star of Sliding Doors and Four Weddings and a Funeral, will play the adventurous Mr Benn, while Ben Kingsley, star of Gandhi, plays the mysterious shopkeeper.

Gary moved into movies from accountancy, but his first business was the ailing Kenyon's Bakery in Blackburn, which he bought from receivers.

The venture wasn't a success but it gave him experience which he put to good use when a cartoon creator asked him to help finance a new series in 1990.

In March 1993, he launched Winchester plc and floated it on the stock market later that year.

Despite moving to Birmingham, he is still a huge Blackbuirn Rovers fan and his new home is called "Ewood Lodge".

Gary, chief executive of Winchester, owns around 30 per cent of the company - a stake now worth around £4.5 million.

Would-be movie moguls can invest in Honest by calling Winchester Films on 0171 439 3136.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.