A budding actor from St Albans is celebrating his blockbuster debut in a much-anticipated thriller released last week.

Max Rowntree, 12, appears alongside Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman in the film adaptation of Child 44, a best-selling crime novel by British author Tom Rob Smith.

The plot follows a disgraced member of the military Soviet Union police as he hunts the trail of several heinous child murders. Max’s character, Andrej, is the younger of two brothers suffering from extreme poverty under Stalin.

Now a pupil at Parmiter’s School, Max filmed his scenes when he was just 10, over two weeks in the Czech Republic.

He said: “It was very exciting to be on set with all the amazing scenery and the different techniques the crew used for effect. The make-up and the stunt team were fun to work with too and I didn’t mind having to have my hair cut really short.”

His agent and director of St Albans based Top Talent Agency, Warren Bacci, said: “Max really shines in front of the cameras and that’s what the casting directors for Child 44 spotted immediately. What an achievement for such a young boy, to be able to say he has starred alongside such big stars at the age of 12.”

Child 44 went general release across the UK last Friday.