Monster on the prowl

AN international film crew have been in Delph to capture scenes for an exciting new film. KEN BENNETT joined them on set

THE Oscar-winning man from Mexico shrugs off the leaden canopy of storm-ravaged skies and says with a beaming smile: “Isn’t the light fantastic?”

The gloomy downturn in Saddleworth’s weather has grounded location filming on a multi-million-pound blockbuster on the windy hillside at Heights, above Delph.

But clutching a pint, Eugenio Caballero (42) cast a thoughtful eye over the countryside.

“It’s marvellous. So dramatic, and the light is just amazing. The stained glass in the church windows is really beautiful. The whole setting here is inspirational.”

But the same wildness has brought filming of “A Monster Calls” to a shuddering halt.

Eugenio - who won an Oscar for Best Achievement in Art Direction for “Pan’s Labyrinth” - turns his attention to a giant, man-made tree.

It has taken more than a week to meticulously fashion the tree on the skyline of one of Saddleworth’s most iconic landscapes.

It sits near a drystone wall surrounded by gravestones, tombs and crosses.

“Isn’t it wonderful,” he exclaims. “The tree weighs about two tons and plays a key part in the movie.”

The yew tree talks and is central to the plot of this dark fantasy, which stars Liam Neeson, Sigourney Weaver and Geraldine Chaplin.

The film tells the story of a boy who seeks help from a monster to cope with his single mother’s terminal illness. It is based on writer Patrick Ness’s children’s novel and Neeson voices the monster - the spirit of the tree, while actress Felicity Jones plays the boy’s mother.

A tour of the graveyard reveals other surprises — there have been some new additions to the ancient tombs and gravestones.

“We made extra ones in Spain,” Eugenio says with pride. “We use modern techniques and skills to create ageing to fit the setting.”

Some of the 130-strong film crew, many of them Spanish, got a treat when they visited the Royal Oak pub, next to the graveyard - special home-smoked delicacies quickly vanished by the team.

The film is directed by Spanish-born JA Bayona, who made “The Impossible”, about the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Author Ness based “A Monster Calls” on an idea by another writer, Siobhan Dowd. The book, described as ”one of the most defining of its generation”, was the second consecutive Carnegie win for Ness, whose “Monsters of Men” took the prize in 2011.