2005 Movie News Archives

Breeza

March 21, 2005: No Expenses Spared on Kent Farm Set

The Age newspaper has published an article outlining some of the expenses and lavish production values bein employed on the Kent Farm set of the up-coming Superman movie...

    The set on a farm near Breeza, 70 kilometres south of Tamworth, comprises 50 hectares of rich farming land. A handsome two-storey farmhouse and a magnificent barn have been built to imitate Jonathan and Martha Kent's farm. The choice of location came about through a friendship with a son of the farm's owners and a movie industry pal.

    But it's the no-expense-spared budget that has boggled the eyes of country folk.

    A dead tree, for instance, was dug up from a nearby property and trucked to the set. It was concreted into the ground with several gnarled roots protruding all for the sum of $11,000. A horticulturist oversees all the plants - living and dead.

    A cubby house has been built, with old telephone poles, in the tree, which will have leaves stuck on it to achieve a canopy effect.

    Fruit trees were sourced from an old orchard 30 kilometres away and plains grass, the natural herbage of stock on these black-soil plains, has been carefully plucked and replanted down the middle of the road leading to the homestead.

    The house itself is a miraculous accomplishment - a throwback to the 1930s when a spacecraft crashed on the Kent family farm. Local contractors, who can't help but pass on the news, report the lights actually turn on and off, the paint effect on the clapboard exterior is truly deceiving and even the front step has been rasped to give a worn effect.

    A nearby field of corn has neighbouring farmers mightily amused. The out-of-season crop, with large cranes at either end, must reach a height of 1.5 metres and is aerially sprayed twice a week to keep it lush and bug-free.

    Eight truckloads of water a day are being ferried to the site, which is criss-crossed by a web of all-weather roads for vehicles and camera trolleys.

    The movie has come as an unexpected shot in the arm for locals called out to work on the set and accommodate production staff.

    In six months, the site will bear scant evidence of its Hollywood connection. Not even a road will be retained as the land is returned to its original state and kryptonite is again something you read about in comics.



2005 Movie News

Listed below are all the Movie News items archived for 2005 organized into 5 categories:

“Superman Returns” Movie News:

Christopher Reeve Movie News: George Reeves Movie News: Other Movie News:

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