Hollywood comes to Huesca

8 January 2004

HUESCA – Hollywood heart-throb Orlando Bloom and British director Ridley Scott arrived Thursday in a small village in one of Spain’s poorest regions to start shooting a new film about the crusades.

Young women hopeful of spotting Bloom gathered outside the Hotel Villa in the village of Ayerbe in Huesca province where the actors and crew are staying.

The 26-year-old British actor has enjoyed two hits this year, ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and the world-wide box office smash, ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’.

In a long and distinguished career, Scott has directed such blockbusters as ‘Gladiator’, ‘Black Hawk Down’, ‘Thelma and Louise’, ‘Alien’ and ‘Blade Runner.’

Scott and the rest of the crew are to begin filming ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ on Monday on the grounds of the nearby Loarre Castle which set designers have converted into a faithful reproduction of a fortress from the 12th century when the film takes place.

The film  tells the story of a blacksmith, played by Bloom, who becomes involved in the Christian crusades in the Holy Land when European knights battled local Muslims to take control of Jerusalem.

It is scheduled for release in 2005.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news