A £1M visitor centre featuring a film about St Cuthbert will be launched on Saturday in the city he helped establish.

The centre in Durham, within the £30m Millennium City complex, will be launched with a procession of monks, Vikings, horses and deerhounds, starting from the cathedral.

This will be followed by the first public screening of Sacred Journey, in the centre's showpiece large screen cinema.

Written and directed by Durham film maker Brendan Quayle, it tells the story of St Cuthbert, the region's unofficial patron saint, from his origins as a Northumbrian shepherd to his burial in what came to be Durham Cathedral.

Mr Quayle's appointment attracted controversy after Durham City Council did not put the contract out to tender, and it emerged that he played tennis with chief executive Colin Shearsmith.

The district auditor found that while the council did not act illegally, the action fell short of "good practice".

As only the second large format film to have been produced in the North, the Sacred Journey follows the success of Rheged, Lost Kingdom, made by Mr Quayle for a visitor attraction near Penrith.

He said it should attract national and international attention to Durham.

"It's a great story about a shepherd that ended up in one of the world's most popular buildings," he said.

"It will only be shown here at first, although it might eventually be shown in America. This is a first for the North-East.

"There was a lot of attention for Billy Elliot, Elizabeth, and Harry Potter, but none of those advertised the landscape of the north of England.

"From an economic development perspective, it is going to draw international attention to the area."

Funded by the Millennium Commission and Durham City Council, the film was shot on a shoestring budget, using a predominantly local cast and crew, around Durham City, the cathedral and Durham's Croxdale estate. It is expected to attract at least 100,000 visitors a year and help persuade tourists to stay longer in the city.

Mr Quayle said: "Durham has always suffered compared with York and Edinburgh. The visitors centre will help make it a place for overnight stays."