From Belfast Live: “Brad Pitt and his movie making team will be filming in Northern Ireland for an other three weeks.
The locations are top secret right now but fans all over the country are on the look-out for the give-away sight of crew vans in the hope of glimpsing Pitt and Robert Pattinson.
They have been filming for The Lost City of Z over the last two weeks in Co Down and finished on Friday morning as the heavens opened once more.
A source said: “The filming has been a huge success in Ireland although the weather has been a slight challenge, especially with some of the costumes.
“Wet wool doesn’t give off the best aroma – but the actors have just carried on. They’re real pros and they get on with it without complaint. No one expects brilliant weather when filming in Ireland, but there were times the rains gods really took the biscuit.
“They crew have about an other 15 to 18 days of filming to sort in Ireland and then they’ll be moving on to Colombia. If it rains there, at least it will be warm.”
The huge team arrived into Grayabbey this week under cover of darkness, a rumbling crowd of anonymous white vans, interspersed with Land Rovers, jeeps and catering trucks, packed with riggers, runners and security guards.
The cavalcade made its way along the winding country roads from Belfast to Greyabbey on beautiful Strangford Lough.
They edged along Newtownards Rd, too heavy for the little village and a bad bend at quaint Orange Tree House.
And finally parked up military fashion on farm land.
It was only as daylight broke that they could see the stunning surroundings of a piece of land rising out of the mist – they were at an island, or as locals call it, T’Island.
And bang in the middle of this remote beauty spot they could see a little white washed cottage with no electric or running water.
But it was here that Hollywood A-list Brad Pitt had agreed to film scenes for his movie, The Lost City of Z.
And for more than three days they camped out, enduring wind, rain, hail and just a little sunshine until filming came to an end on Friday morning.
Wellies, fleeces, overcoats and even overalls, they were donned by everyone from the actors, producers and director to the security team anxious to keep the location a secret.
The Lost City of Z is dotted with big names, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Charlie Hunnam, and young Tom Holland.
Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kliener have joined forces to produce the movie version of David Grann’s best seller.
And with their Plan B Entertainment production company, they have joined Anthony Katagas and Dale Johnson and MadRiver Pictures’ Marc Butan, who is executive producer alongside Julie B May and Glenn Murray.
They may be names no one had taken much notice of in the past, but they are tripping off the tongue around Greyabbey right now.
A local source said: “The big wigs were apparently invited to stay with the Montgomerys in the big house.
“There wasn’t much talk of the filming until the names Brad Pitt, Sienna Miller and Robert Pattinson were mentioned. Then suddenly everyone became very excited.
“To have those Hollywood names right here in our village is amazing and we’re very proud of our heritage and our lough.
“I don’t know how Brad Pitt copes with it. Every time his name is mentioned, the women all go a bit mad. They all squeal and start giggling. He must be some fella.
“The film crew drove in under darkness, a whole cavalcade of them along the Newtownards Rd until they got to the big farm house.
“And the locals have been walking over the coast for a nosey. Some of it’s National Trust land and it’s all open to the public so they couldn’t say very much.
“People were doing a bit of star spotting but the weather put paid to that and everyone cleared off.
“But fair play to all the people working on the film. They worked through rain and wind and it was pretty fresh too. They worked late into the night on Tuesday with big spotlights keeping the wee cottage alight.
“We’re used to the changing weather here but I’m sure some of those London ones or the Americans wondered what they’d come to, especially because it’s August.
“A lot of the riggers and the lads looking after the equipment were from Northern Ireland and they just got stuck in.
“But they all had to be careful about the tide so that the actors and equipment didn’t get stuck on the island.
“It’s a causeway until the water comes in and when it comes in, it’s fast. I think the speed of it took them by surprise on the first day although they’d been given advice by locals about the tidal times.”
The Lost City of Z – pronounced zee – follows Percy Fawcett, played by Charlie Hunnam, who is one of the last great Victorian explorers.
He has developed an obsession with the Amazon and is convinced he has lost a forgotten civilisation in the jungles of Brazil.
Fawcett vanished in the 1920s during a search for the lost city.”