A HOLLYWOOD blockbuster starring Liam Neeson and Sigourney Weaver is currently being shot in Horwich.

Actors and production staff have descended on Rivington Pike and Horwich to film parts of A Monster Calls, starring Schindler's List and Taken actor Liam Neeson and Alien series star Sigourney Weaver.

While the Hollywood stars were not in town, dozens of the film’s staff were spotted near the Pigeon Tower, at the top of Rivington Pike, on Monday.

A spokesman for Chorley Council, which owns land near the filming location, said: “It’s for a feature film that’s based on a book and the film itself will be starring Liam Neeson but he is not actually up there.

“I think it’s a particular scene which they are looking at, which features a church on top of a hill.

“They are putting some structures up there and constructing a blue screen.

“It’s just further down from the pike.”

It is thought the location was chosen due to its hilly landscape and the film crew was expected to be there for three days.

A Monster Calls tells the story of 13-year-old Conor, played by Lewis MacDougall, who is visited by a story-telling monster while struggling to come to terms with his mother’s terminal cancer.

The story has been taken from the best-selling 2011 children’s book, by Patrick Ness, based on an original idea by writer Siobhan Dowd, who started the story but died from breast cancer in 2007.

Security was tight during filming, which was taking place in a wooded area, while catering vans set up nearby to feed production staff, including many from Spain where the film’s director Juan Antonio Bayona is from.

Filming also took place in an alleyway between Barlow Street and Siemens Street, Horwich, featuring two young cast members.

In March, Focus Features bought the film rights to the book for $20 million.

It stars Sigourney, who has been filming scenes in Huddesfield, as Conor’s grandmother, and Liam, as the monster, whose scenes will all be shot in a studio in Barcelona.

A Monster Calls will be released in 2016. 
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