After Bermudian filmmaker Lucinda Spurling premiered her now star-studded documentary film this spring she found it was missing something – a stud, who's a star.

That problem has now been rectified. Actor Michael Douglas, who lives in Bermuda with his family, now narrates Ms Spurling's film 'The Lion and the Mouse'.

Mr. Douglas is well-known for such films as 'Wonder Boys', 'Basic Instinct' and 'The American President', among many others. His mother, Diana Dill Douglas Darrid, is Bermudian.

Ms Spurling released 'The Lion and the Mouse' in March to commemorate Bermuda's 400th anniversary. The film documents Bermuda's historic relationship with America.

"The truth is I have been working on Mr. Douglas for quite a while," said Ms Spurling. "When the film was completed, I sent him a DVD, and then a couple of weeks later he said he would do it. That was absolutely wonderful. It was what I had dreamed about."

Mr. Douglas recently attended a special screening of 'The Lion and the Mouse' held at the Capitol Building in Washington, DC.

"That was great," said Ms Spurling. "Mr. Douglas came and stayed for the whole party. He definitely had a lot of pictures taken. That was great."

Originally, the film was narrated by Ms Spurling's mother, Jane Spurling.

"She does a lot of voice over work," said Ms Spurling. "I had tried other people out. She had done our scratch narration. She was actually very, very good."

But Ms Spurling said as good as mom was, she just wasn't quite as good as Michael Douglas.

Mr. Douglas took 40 minutes to record the narration needed for the three-hour film.

"I have worked with professional voice-over artists before," said Ms Spurling, "but I was still in awe. I was very impressed."

She said that from a producer's point of view, having Mr. Douglas' name made the film much more marketable all over the world, but especially in the United States.

"People want to watch films that Michael Douglas is in," said Ms Spurling. "It gives it a certain amount of importance. People are then willing to distribute it and it has a bigger audience from a production point of view."

Ms Spurling said Mr. Douglas is also a great symbol for the film as he is both American and Bermudian, as is Ms Spurling.

"He is a great symbol for the film, and the bridging of the history in the two countries," said Ms Spurling. "And of course he loves Bermuda."

'The Lion and the Mouse' is already making a name for itself. It received the 2009 Bacardi Audience Choice Award at the last Bermuda International Film Festival (BIFF).

"That was great," said Ms Spurling.

They did a screening at Jamestown, Virginia without Mr. Douglas' voice and the theatre was packed with 200 people.

"The new version with Michael Douglas' voice, we didn't finish until May," said Ms Spurling.

"So we have only just started entering it into film festivals.

"There is quite a time lag. We will know if the film got into those festivals in the fall."

She hoped that getting into film festivals would bring the film more exposure and ultimately greater distribution.

"I am just waiting hopefully for someone to say 'yes, we want to show it on our channel'."

But she said this is a very long process.

"My last film, 'Rare Bird', which was finished in 2006, has an air date on PBS of September 27. That took three years. Hopefully, it won't take that long with this one."

She is also fundraising for her outreach programme. There will be a special screening of 'The Lion and the Mouse' this Thursday, July 2, at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI).

Tickets are $25, and can be purchased on www.premiertickets.bm.

All the money raised from that will go to producing a study guide.

"That is one of the last things we have to do," said Ms Spurling. "Our website [www.thelionandthemousefilm.org] is about to go live.

"We are still having some teething problems, but it should go live soon. We were lucky enough to have that donated by Jonathan Young and Sheldon Jones."

Ms Spurling is still working on 'The Lion and the Mouse' in terms of outreach, but has gone back to doing work for hire.

"It has been great," she said. "It has been an interesting time. A lot of my work has been on the community and looking at social needs."

She recently produced a video for WindReach Recreational Village.

"It is basically about what WindReach does," said Ms Spurling, "but it is told from the point of view of the people that benefit from WindReach. To hear them talk about the facilities and programmes is so much more eloquent."

'The Lion and the Mouse' DVDs will go on sale in the next week. All the proceeds from DVD sales will go back into the outreach programme.

The new trailer for 'The Lion and the Mouse' can be seen on youtube.com and on Internet Movie Database (IMDB) www.imdb.com.