THE award-winning director of The Full Monty yesterday said he was relieved plans for a sequel to the movie had never come to fruition.

Peter Cattaneo, ahead of the world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, of his second movie, Lucky Break, also spoke of the pressures he faced after the success of his directorial debut on the silver screen.

''I understand that Fox put the word out if anyone had an idea for the Full Monty 2 they would be interested in having a look. I was not really involved in that, but I am glad nothing came along that excited them,'' he said.

He admitted he had been flattered by a Broadway musical based on the film and joked he would ''love to see it if I could handle it, but my head might explode''.

The Oscar-nominated director described how he had faced a two-year ''roller-coaster'' in the wake of the success of The Full Monty, a black comedy involving a group of jobless Sheffield steelworkers who turn to a one-off stripping performance to raise cash and their battered self-esteem.

''There was a year of publicity with the film which took in every film festival around the world and it just carried on into awards and it seemed to take two years for all the interest to stop. Only at the end of that could I think about my next project.''

His second offering, whose cast includes James Nesbitt, Olivia Williams and Timothy Spall is described as ''a prison escape comedy with a musical twist''.

Describing the pressure he had felt with his second film, he said: ''After the kind of hangover from the party of celebrating Full Monty, it did become this kind of uncomfortable feeling about what do you do next, but I've just sort of got used to it now.

''It's a bit like wearing an uncomfortable hat all day. By the end of the day, you feel weird if you take it off. So it's a great pressure to have in some ways.''

He explained he had rejected offers to go to the US for ''so-so'' scripts for other films, remaining instead in London with his wife and new baby, but did not rule out a move across the Atlantic in future if the right script came along.

''I'm not saying I'm not going to work in America, but really at that time of my life I had just had my first child. It was just not a time to go and sit by a pool and wait for a wonderful project to come up. If a script came through the door and it was 'wow, I want to do it', I'm sure my family would follow me.''

He hoped his next project would be with Film Four to turn a 90-page novella, Pobby and Dignan, into a feature-length film.

Meanwhile, Standard Life announced yesterday it had extended its sponsorship of the Edinburgh Film Festival and had committed itself to supporting the event for a further two years.