Oct 29 2006 Nathan Bevan, Wales on Sunday
THERE may not have been any Raging Bulls, but there were plenty of sheep to watch Oscar- winning legend Robert De Niro filming his brand new movie in the Brecon Beacons.
The Taxi Driver star is said to have swapped the Hollywood hills for the high peaks of mid-Wales for his role as swashbuckling 'sky pirate' Captain Shakespeare in a major new fantasy blockbuster called Stardust.
Adapted from Neil Gaiman's best-selling fantasy novel, the flick also features a glittering cast of Tinseltown royalty like Peter O'Toole and Michelle Pfeiffer, not to mention the first foray into moviedom by The Office funnyman Ricky Gervais.
Despite production details being kept tightly under wraps, we can reveal Stardust tells the tale of a young man who promises his beloved that he'll retrieve a fallen star by venturing into a magical realm where he encounters Pfeiffer's evil witch and De Niro's pirate.
Meanwhile, Gervais - who admits spending the duration of his main scene in the movie trying to make his hero De Niro laugh - has described his character of Ferdy The Fence as a "kind of Never Never Land Arthur Daley".
The cast and crew spent a week during this summer on location shooting around Llyn Y Fan Fach, a 20,000-year-old glacial lake near Ystradfellte in the breathtaking National Park.
The stretch of water - whose name translates to 'small lake of the peaks' - was chosen due to it's mythical connections, shrouded as it is in Celtic legend and purported to be the location where the lady of the lake handed the sword Excalibur to King Arthur.
The movie's director and producer Matthew Vaughan, who worked with Guy Ritchie on Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and is married to supermodel Claudia Schiffer, was full of praise for the National Park's stunning scenery.
He said: "The Brecon Beacons is a hidden gem and just a fantastic location for us to film Stardust. Its dramatic landscape and sweeping views were just perfect for us and made it a pleasure to shoot there."
Stardust, produced by Paramount Pictures, will hit British cinemas next summer.
A spokeswoman for the film giant said: "The stars of Stardust did descend on Wales for filming during the summer.
"As well as shooting in Wales, we also shot all over the UK. The stars loved Wales."
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