Hollywood came to Ely yesterday when the cathedral closed while the cameras roll for filming of action blockbuster Assassins Creed starring Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, and Jeremy Irons.
Crews were setting up ready for filming last week and people living close to the cathedral were warned about what would be happening in letters.
However, the letters did not mention Assassin’s Creed but referred to the film as Time Out of Mind - which it is understood is the in-production title of the movie which is based on the hugely popular action-adventure video game series created by Ubisoft.
The film is directed by Justin Kurzel who was in the city with Fassbender in 2014 when the pair worked together on MacBeth which was released last year.
This latest film from 20th Century Fox will be set in the same universe as the video games. Filming began in August last year and is due to be released at the end of the year.
A cathedral spokesman refused to comment on the film because of confidentiality agreements but the cathedral’s website confirms the historic building closed due to ‘an event taking place’ and there is an apology for any inconvenience caused.
There is a sign on the door to the cathedral asking those working on the filming to ‘respect the religious and historical nature of this building’.
It says food and drink should not be taken into the building other than sealed water containers and the crew must also keep their voices and the volume on their radios down.
Ely is fast becoming a popular venue for filmmakers. Among the first Hollywood stars to hit the city were Al Pacino in the early 1980s when he was making the American fight for independence epic ‘Revolution’.
The city doubled as Philadelphia for that film and the green outside the cathedral was among the sites used for filming.
More recently the cathedral was the backdrop for Netflix 10-parter The Crown which was filmed last year.
In 2014 Fassbender and Kurzel used the cathedral for Macbeth.
Oscar winning Elizabeth the Golden Age starring Cate Blanchett was filmed in 2006 and keeping with the royal theme ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ (2007) and The King’s Speech (2009) with Colin Firth also made use of the cathedral.
In 2013 it was used for the making of futuristic fantasy Jupiter Ascending which starred Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum.
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