Filming is due to start in Bolton of a new UK drama featuring Hollywood star Ewan McGregor.
In the latest in an ever-growing line of location managers choosing the town and its architecture for film and TV shoots Victoria Square, outside Bolton Town Hall in the town centre, has been fenced off with film crews, trucks and equipment pictured within the cordon.
Star Wars and Trainspotting actor McGregor, 51, has previously said he's 'very excited' to star in 'A Gentleman In Moscow', adapted for the screen from the best-selling novel by Amor Towles and also said to star Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
The Scottish star will lead the cast as Count Alexander Rostov and will also serve as an executive producer on the Paramount+ series, with rumours swirling on social media that Bolton Town Hall could double as the Kremlin or a grandiose Russian hotel. Fake snow has been sprayed onto the Grade I-listed building's steps.
Signs currently in place reveal roads will be closed to allow for filming from Monday until Thursday, March 2, with a section of Le Mans Crescent also sealed off.
The news comes as Bolton landmarks featured prominently in the final series of Sally Wainwright's BAFTA-winning Happy Valley, starring Sarah Lancashire as embattled cop Sergeant Catherine Cawood. Locations included Amico Cafe on Corporation Street in Bolton, where Lancashire's character rumbled her sister taking her grandson to prison to see his father, murderer and sex offender Tommy Lee Royce, played by James Norton.
Scenes of Royce's dramatic court escape were filmed at the former Bolton magistrates' court on Le Mans Crescent and beside the former police station next door.
Set in the aftermath of the Russian revolution, McGregor's character Count Alexander Rostov is spared immediate execution but is banished by a Soviet tribunal to an attic room in the opulent Hotel Metropol and threatened with death if he ever sets foot outside.
Locations in Bolton have also been used in filming for the BBC's Peaky Blinders, ITV spy thriller The Ipcress File, starring Michael Caine, and Channel 4 hit It's A Sin.
The series will see decades of Russian history unfold outside the hotel doors, with the character building a new life and discovering the value of friendship, family and love.
McGregor said last year of the drama: "It's an amazing, wonderful story and I am very excited to get to play such a fabulous role."
The series is an adaption of Towles’ best-selling novel, written by showrunner and executive producer Ben Vanstone.
McGregor recently reprised his role of Star Wars favourite Obi-Wan Kenobi after almost two decades for the self-titled Disney+ TV series, having starring in three Star Wars prequels from 1999 to 2005. A Gentleman In Moscow will debut exclusively on Paramount+ in the UK in 2023.
Council bosses said the continuing attraction of Bolton as a film and TV location brings money into the town and supports local business.
Bolton Council deputy leader, coun Hilary Fairclough, said of the latest filming: "We remain a popular film location, and this is just the latest big-budget production to take advantage of everything Bolton had to offer.
"This continued interest is a direct result of the council’s policy to attract more filming, and we have a well-earned reputation as one of the most film-friendly towns in the country.
"Film productions bring money into the town and help boost local businesses. Just as important is the opportunity to showcase the best of Bolton to a major audience."
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