LAKE District boating enthusiasts have joined the search for screen-worthy wooden dinghies to appear in the forthcoming film, Swallows and Amazons.

Announced at the glitzy Cannes Film Festival, the movie is to star Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald as Mrs Walker in the role made famous by Virginia McKenna in 1974's much-loved feature.

English actor Rafe Spall has also been cast as Uncle Jim/Captain Flint, the part originally played by Ronald Fraser.

Production on the Harbour Pictures and BBC Films movie is expected to begin in the Lake District this summer. In the meantime, the Lake District Boat Club, at the Glebe, Bowness, has been asked to turn detective by helping to find around 20 clinker dinghies "in keeping with the 1930s period" for the movie - a distinctive style of wooden craft built with overlapping hull planks.

The friendly, family club is located just a few yards from where the children bought ice creams in the original Claude Whatham-directed film. Some of its members have lived on the shores of Windermere all their lives.

Boat club director John Inskip told the Gazette that his children were brought up sailing dinghies on Ullswater and Coniston Water, and they had watched the original film many times.

John still remembers their excitement at visiting the secret harbour at Wild Cat Island (the fictional name given to Peel Island on Coniston Water by author Arthur Ransome) in a Wayfarer dinghy and hoisting a lantern, describing them as "marvellous memories".

John is promoting the boat hunt in the LDBC newsletter and he told the Gazette he would be watching the film's progress "with anticipation".

The classic children's yarn by Arthur Ransome has been captivating readers since 1930 with its story of an idyllic English summer holiday where the Walker children - John, Susan, Titty and Roger - and their sailing rivals Nancy and Peggy Blackett enjoy good old-fashioned adventures against the backdrop of the Lake District.

French-based production and distribution company StudioCanal has purchased the new movie’s UK rights, and the film was officially announced at Cannes.

The screenplay is by Scottish writer Andrea Gibb and will be directed by Philippa Lowthorpe, of the BBC's Jamaica Inn fame.

Nick Barton, of Harbour Pictures, said he was delighted to be setting sail with the film after years of planning.

“We are also grateful to the Ransome Trustees and the Ransome Society for all their support,” he added.

Danny Perkins, of StudioCanal, said: “We are incredibly excited to be involved in this special project; Swallows and Amazons has the same traditional values that propelled Paddington to success; coupled with Philippa Lowthorpe’s fresh take on the material, audiences will delight in this film.”