AUSSIE DIRECTOR UPSET BY DECAYING U.K. STATELY HOMES

Last updated: Monday, May 11, 2009

AUSSIE DIRECTOR UPSET BY DECAYING U.K. STATELY HOMES

Aussie moviemaker STEPHAN ELLIOTT was stunned to find England's stately retreats in such disrepair as he used the homes as backdrops for his period comedy EASY VIRTUE.

Stephan Elliott filming on the set of 'Easy Virtue'

The director used homes Flintham Hall in Nottinghamshire, Englefield Hall in Berkshire and Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire as the locations for his adaptation of Noel Coward's play - and could not believe what he found once he walked through the front doors of the stately piles.

He tells WENN, "They're all trust houses and nobody can afford them. There were people running at us with their arms out wide because there was a film crew giving them money; they can fix the roof with the cash.

"There was one house we went into where you could get a tax write-off if you get the floorboards dug up, and they (the owners) lived in two rooms.

"I opened the door to one room I was told not to and almost fell 11 feet because they'd pulled floorboards up. It was extraordinary."

But there were a few treasures that caused problems for Elliott and his cast, which included Jessica Biel and Colin Firth, during filming.

The director explains, "Unfortunately somebody did stick their arm through a Titian painting, but that's what insurance is for.

"There was this one house we went into and, basically, there were these urns on a wall and the owners said, 'Could you watch those?'

"They were very ornate. One day I asked about them and the owner said, 'That single urn there is worth more than this estate - you're looking at about 70 to 80 million pounds of urns.

"We said, 'S**t, who's in them?'"

Source: WENN

| Monday, May 11, 2009

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AUSSIE DIRECTOR UPSET BY DECAYING U.K. STATELY HOMES

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