Saturday, June 23, 2012

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION


While we twiddle our thumbs patiently (not!) waiting for the lull to pass and our adaptation of GREEN DARKNESS to move into the next stage, we thought we'd share some information on the locations in the screenplay.

The Spread Eagle Tavern (www.spreadeaglehotelmidhurst.com) is today the Spread Eagle Hotel and Spa, in Midhurst, Sussex, England. It dates back to 1420.

Cowdray House at www.cowdray.co.uk is the Cowdray Castle we envisioned. This is actual estate Sir Anthony Browne owned. Because of its condition, more ruin than liveable quarters, we changed Browne's ownership to Ightham Mote for the sake of making it easier for prospective location scouts and filming.

Ightham Mote (pronounced Item Moot) can be seen at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ighthammote and www.ighthammote.co.uk. The second link includes a video about the actual restoration of the estate house. C.H. Robinson built a replica of this historical treasure in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and named it 'Hidden Court'.

Naworth Castle, home of the Dacre and Howard families in Scotland, appears to be very receptive to movie film companies. www.naworth.co.uk Walt Disney enjoyed a visit at this splendid estate in 1935. (We can't help but wonder if award-winning director Ron Howard can trace his ancestry back to this piece of heaven in Scotland.)

Your assignment – should you choose to accept it and we hope you will – is to check out these sites. We hope that seeing these real  sites will stir your imagination as it did ours!

Can’t you almost SEE the GREEN DARKNESS characters living, breathing the story in these real places? We can!

 Until next time -

 Marla & Angela