BODY doubles have long been a staple of Hollywood movies.
Unsung lookalikes routinely stand in for the stars for a few days’ pay and none of the plaudits.
But now, with its voluptuous natural curves and stunning beauty, one particular lookalike is emerging as the queen of the movie doubles – Wales.
The nation is to yet again stand in for another corner of the globe with the filming of $25m blockbuster Ironclad, it was confirmed yesterday.
A stellar cast rumoured to be headed up by Transformers pin-up Megan Fox, and including British heavyweights Bob Hoskins and Robert Carlyle, will move to Wales to film the historic epic – even though it is set some 200 miles away in Rochester Castle.
Producer Andrew Curtis yesterday confirmed the entire movie is to be filmed here but could not say which of the nation’s locations would stand in for the fortress.
We’re still finalising it but it’s definitely coming to Wales,” he said.
Ironclad is by no means the first to use the nation’s natural resources as a stand-in for elsewhere.
One of the first examples was Ivanhoe, released in Welsh cinemas in 1919. Like Ironclad, it was set in 13th century medieval England with a group of knights struggling against a tyrannical King. Filmed at Chepstow Castle it starred the top actors of the day, including the aptly-named silent film star King Baggot.
Since then a string of Hollywood blockbusters have brought a touch of unlikely Hollywood glamour to otherwise familiar locations, including a stretch of South Wales coastline doubling up for the Arabian desert, not to mention various Welsh quarries doubling as even further-flung outposts of the universe in Doctor Who.
And just earlier this year, Ridley Scott brought a crew of 600 to Freshwater East, where hundreds of horses and extras battled on the wide sands. It certainly isn’t Sherwood Forest, but with the script heavily guarded it is unclear if the beach is supposed to be in England or beyond. But one thing is certain, says cultural historian Peter Stead – it won’t be Wales.
There has always been a tremendous interest in movies in Wales,” he said. “In the old days people went to the cinema more in Wales than anywhere else in the UK but the films were always set elsewhere. We very rarely see Wales in movies.
If you take someone like Richard Burton, he never played a Welsh role other than in Under Milk Wood, which was a literary thing. He never played a Welshman in anything. He was never a Welsh soldier or a Welsh intellect. He was just Richard Burton.
Things have improved, we have many great Welsh actors, but still on the whole they go elsewhere to make their films.
There has been a tremendous yearning for Welsh films to be made but the scripts and the funding just aren’t here.
The English fought the Welsh for hundreds of years, we have our industrial history, the Chartists, the miners – Welsh history is crying out for a great film to be made about it. We need more ambition because there is no reason why we shouldn’t have these films.”
Film critic Gary Slaymaker agreed. he said Welsh filmmakers now flexing their muscles in Hollywood were in a prime position to make Welsh films.
He said: “Filmmakers are coming to Cardiff and taking advantage of our great locations. So why aren’t we using it ourselves?
The trouble is we seem to be stuck in a bit of a rut. It’s always high-minded dead poets stuff and chain mail. We use the mythology we have but it’s all talk no action. If you have chainmail and a sword, you don’t talk in films, you fight.
We did have films like Twin Town, which of course was brilliant, but that’s it.
We have these brilliant locations which you can use for anything – historical, horror, even comedy, but we need someone to come along and make it happen.”
An Assembly Government spokesman pointed out the advantage of being a destination for outside films.
He said: “Together with its stunning natural, urban and historical locations and the Wales Screen Commission's experience in successfully delivering film productions and sourcing film crews, Wales has become a popular destination for film-makers.
As well as delivering benefits to the local economy, the use of Wales as a location by film-makers helps raise our profile amongst other film-makers and also as a tourism destination.”
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