Hollywood-on-Sea: How a £110m Robin Hood epic has put a tiny Welsh beach resort on the movie map
By
Harry Mount
Last updated at 1:28 AM on 09th July 2009
Take the B4319 from St Twynnells to Angle - a slim, single-lane strip of Tarmac that snakes around the edge of the Pembrokeshire coast in the bottom left corner of Wales - and you’re in for a big surprise.
By the beach at Freshwater West, the road dips behind the dunes, masking the sea views. Climb to the top of those dunes, as I did a few days ago, and, suddenly, violently, you step right back into the Middle Ages.
أصبح الشاطئ المجهول في ويلز لمعلم سياحي،حيث تحول الطريق للموقع لمايشبه العحياة في القرون الوسطى ،حيث العنف .و في العادة فالشاطئ ذو الميلين مهجور و يتمتع بهدؤ ،ولكنه تحول لمنطقة حرب للقرون الوسطى،حيث تتناثر الجثت وتسيل الدماء منهول معارك روبين هود للبطل راسيل كرو مع مواطنته الأسترالية كيث بلانشيت التي تؤدي دور حبيبته ماريان.و أوجه المحاربون مقنعة بخوذات حديدية.ومخرد الفيلم هو سير سكوت.و الموقع يشهد أكبرأستديو مفتوح في بريطانيا.كلفت إنتاجية الفيلم حوالي 110 مليون جنيها إسترلينيا.
Here, on a normally tranquil two-mile-long stretch of remote Welsh beach, I have stumbled upon a full-scale medieval war.
Man o’ war: Russell Crowe as Robin Hood in Ridley Scott’s epic, being filmed on a beach in Wales
Soaring flames burst from pyramids built out of tapering tree trunks, enveloping this 13th-century version of the D-Day landing beaches in plumes of white smoke.
Just beneath me, at the foot of the dunes, there’s a heap of dead crusaders, their blood-smeared corpses wrapped in blue tabards emblazoned with white crosses. Tasselled flags, bearing the three heraldic lions of England, flutter in the strong south-westerly wind.
At the edge of the sea, a cluster of whinnying white stallions paw the surf, mounted with soldiers holding 12-foot lances, their bloody faces obscured by iron helmets.
Rushing in on the tide are four ancient longboats, packed to the gunwales with screaming knights, brandishing crossbows and pikes. Ahead of them, beached beside the rocks, an oak galleon squats on the sands, its sails billowing in the breeze.
Oh, and right in the middle of the action, Russell Crowe is getting nifty with his sword. No, I haven’t had too much Felinfoel Double Dragon Welsh Ale at lunchtime.
I have come across the biggest openair film set in Britain, where Sir Ridley Scott - responsible for Hollywood smashes such as Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise and Gladiator - is directing an epic £110million production of Robin Hood.
It’s a vast enterprise, on the same scale as a genuine massed battle. A cast and crew of 800, including 450 local extras, and 130 horses have spread themselves right across the broad, deep sands.
All at sea: Battle enactment of the English against the French
Out at sea, beyond the longboats, there’s a speedboat, a dinghy, three jetskis, a pair of customised fishing boats and three enormous landing craft camouflaged in plywood.
Towards the back of the set there are seven tractors, 11 golf carts and, at a rough count, 33 4×4 vehicles, all engaged in filming a battle between the English and the French.
Forget Sherwood Forest: in Sir Ridley’s version of the myth, Robin Hood spends his formative years as an archer in Richard the Lionheart’s army.
Up on the clifftop, in the car park by the ice cream van, a tented city provides the props for this film-making army. At the other end of the beach, two long ranges of temporary stables slink for several hundred yards across a field by the edge of the cliff.
Next door, a series of sparkling clean, white trailers and motor homes provide sleeping and eating quarters for all except the grandest stars.
Maid Marian, played by Cate Blanchett, isn’t needed for these bloodand-thunder fight scenes.
لقد طلب راسل كرو هليكوبتر لنقله من سكنه في بيركشاير إلى موقع التصوير كل يوم ،مماضايق جيرانه.لقد كان راسل يؤدي مشهدا بالسيق ،تحت مراقبة لمعلمه المبارازاة بالسيف.
And Russell Crowe is being helicoptered in and out every day from Windsor, Berkshire, to do what he is doing on the beach in front of me - swinging a great big sword under the close supervision of his sword-fight teacher, his scabbard and medieval hoodie set off with a sleek pair of wraparound dark glasses.
Occasionally, he sheaths his sword for a quick fag break and a forkful of pasta: ‘He hasn’t had an ice cream yet - it’s too cold,’ says the man in the ice cream van in the car park. ‘Lovely man, though. Came over for a bit of a chat.’
أثناء الإستراحة يقضيها راسل كرو في التدخين وتناول المعكرونة،ولم يتناول الآيس كريم بعد لبرودة الطقس كما صرح بائع الآيس كريم.
Taking a break: The filming of the movie has bemused holidaymakers to the area
The ice cream man seems unimpressed by an international megastar hovering by his tubs of Pembrokeshire Promise - a mix of vanilla ice cream and local Welsh honeycomb. But, then again, he’s had time to get used to it.
السكان يطلقون على الشاطئ فريش ويست ( الغرب الطازج)،وأصبح هوليوود بريطانيا.الشاطئ الهادئ معزول،
المزيد
