Can't Play AVPLayer Local Video from - ios

Question

So I am building a custom video player using AVFoundation - AVPlayer and AVPlayerLayer.
Currently, all I want the player to do is play a video in the asset library with a hardcoded url to that video. I would like this to be contained in a SubClass of UIView so I can use it all around my app.
Here is my code so far:
CUPlayer.h:
#interface CUPlayer : UIView
{
AVPlayer *player;
AVPlayerLayer *playerLayer;
AVPlayerItem *item;
NSURL *url;
}
#property(nonatomic) UIViewAutoresizing autoresizingMask;
#end
CUPlayer.m:
#implementation CUPlayer
- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
if (self)
{
// Initialization code
self.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor];
[self setupURL];
}
return self;
}
-(void)setupURL
{
NSLog(#"URL setting up");
NSString *string = #"assets-library://asset/asset.mov?id=0A937F0D-6265-452D-8800- 1A760E8E88B9&ext=mov";
url = [[NSURL alloc] initFileURLWithPath: string];
[self setupPlayerForURL];
}
-(void)setupPlayerForURL
{
AVAsset *asset = [AVURLAsset URLAssetWithURL:url options:nil];
item = [AVPlayerItem playerItemWithAsset:asset];
player = [AVPlayer playerWithPlayerItem:item];
[player addObserver:self forKeyPath:#"status" options:0 context:nil];
playerLayer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:player];
//player.actionAtItemEnd = AVPlayerActionAtItemEndNone;
[self.layer addSublayer:playerLayer];
playerLayer.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 200, 200);
//[playerLayer setBackgroundColor:[UIColor greenColor].CGColor];
}
- (void)observeValueForKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath ofObject:(id)object change:(NSDictionary *)change context:(void *)context {
if (object == player && [keyPath isEqualToString:#"status"]) {
if (player.status == AVPlayerStatusFailed) {
NSLog(#"AVPlayer Failed");
} else if (player.status == AVPlayerStatusReadyToPlay) {
NSLog(#"AVPlayer Ready to Play");
[player play];
} else if (player.status == AVPlayerItemStatusUnknown) {
NSLog(#"AVPlayer Unknown");
}
}
}
And then I am calling this from the View Controller:
CUPlayer *cuPlayer = [[CUPlayer alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 250, 250)];
[self.view addSubview:cuPlayer];
This complies but just give me a red square without the video playing. The URL to the local file is definitely correct. I can get it working if I hold all the code in the view controller and run the play in -(void)viewDidLayoutSubviews.
Help would very much be appreciated, I have read all the documentation multiple times trying to work this thing out.
Tom