The versatile and apparently indefatigable Cillian Murphy is now so much in demand that he seems to be moving from one film set to another without a break.

Murphy, who is 29, persuasively plays the dual villainous role of Dr Jonathan Crane and The Scarecrow in Batman Begins, which opened here yesterday; he's a killer who kidnaps airline passenger Rachel McAdams in the Wes Craven thriller Red-Eye (pictured), which opens here on September 2nd; and he looks sensational as a transvestite in Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto, which is due for release later this year.

Murphy is currently back in his native Cork at present to take the lead in Ken Loach's War of Independence drama, The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Then he joins Chris Evans and Michelle Yeoh in Danny Boyle's space mission picture, Sunshine, adapted by Alex Garland from a Microsoft computer game. Down the line is 28 Weeks Later, Boyle's sequel to 28 Days Later, in which Murphy played the lead.