There was a noticeable absentee at the launch of the new British movie Gabriel And Me. The name of Billy Elliot didn't pass the lips of the cast and backers as they faced the media before the world premiere of the North-East set film.

This is odd as the two movies have much in common, apart from being filmed on location in this region.

Both were written by Lee Hall, the Newcastle-born playwright. Both underwent name changes after filming was completed - Dancer became Billy Elliot, Jimmy Spud became Gabriel And Me.

Both feature a teenage boy as the leading character, who's having to cope with a harsh home life as he wrestles with the problems of growing up. In each film, the character is played by a screen newcomer from the North-East, discovered after extensive auditions.

Both have Scottish actors playing the father. Both even feature a character who says that all ballet dancers are poofs.

The similarities can only lead people to ask: is Jimmy Spud the new Billy Elliot? The answer must be no. Gabriel And Me isn't as good a film and the themes, some of them strikingly familiar, make it seem like a pale imitation of Hall's previous work.

Above all, Billy Elliot was a one-off, a happy combination of writer, director (Stephen Daldry) and star that happens rarely in British film.

The closest anyone connected with Gabriel And Me gets to mentioning the B word is producer Marc Samuelson, when asked about the thinking behind changing the title.

"There were a number of reasons," he explains before the world premiere screening at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. "There have been a lot of films with children's names and it's not another of those. It's completely different. Jimmy Spud sounds kind of like a kids' comedy name and the film is much more than that."

On reflection, the reluctance of the makers of Gabriel And Me to embrace Billy Elliot is understandable. They cannot hope to achieve the level of success of that film which became an international hit, one of the biggest and best-received British movies for years. It made a star of young Billingham actor Jamie Bell, himself the subject of a forthcoming BBC1 Omnibus documentary, and earned Hall an Oscar nomination.

This is not to denigrate the excellent performance of Sean Landless, chosen after the inevitable long and difficult search to find the right boy to portray Jimmy Spud. Director Udayan Prasad pays tribute to casting director Pippa Hall who saw more than 200 hopefuls. "What struck me was the amount of talent, especially in the North-East, so many terrific kids wanting to be actors," he says.

"There were some incredible actors, but Sean was just kind of always there. I must have called him back six times and each time he came more and more to the foreground, and it was such a pleasure.

"In the end, there was no one else who could have done the part. I changed my attitude towards Jimmy as we saw more and more of Sean. Sean became Jimmy and Jimmy became Sean during the making of the film."

Having interviewed Sean on location in Newcastle, I couldn't help noticing the change on meeting him again. He's grown up a lot, and not just the four or five inches extra height. His hair's a different colour after having it dyed "blond-gingery" to play Jimmy Spud.

What remains the same is that he's still a fanatical Sunderland supporter, who was shame-faced at having to wear a Newcastle shirt as Jimmy. He turned up for the premiere press conference sporting a Sunderland shirt - he'd worn it to Edinburgh and couldn't get into his hotel room to change before facing the press.

Surprisingly, the first time he saw the completed film was at the Edinburgh premiere. He'd only seen a few scenes on video before that.

He's also appeared in another film, a short called Danny And His Amazing Teeth, shot during the school summer holidays.

"I play a young lad who has metal braces and can pick up radio waves. We filmed on location in Newcastle for five days," he says.

He's back at Southmoor School now but his film experiences have given him a taste for acting. "When I was young I wanted to be a pilot, but since I got the part last year my mind has been on other things," says Sean.

* Gabriel And Me has its North-East premiere at the Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle, on Monday and goes on general release on November 2.