Filming for the Hollywood movie “Stardust” starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro will start in Iceland next weekend.
Substantial parts of the movie were to be filmed in Iceland but it seems that horses might keep the movie stars away..
Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, Sienna Miller and Charlie Cox are among the stars in this Matthew Vaughn-directed adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s fantasy novel.
Morgunbladid reports that horses also have a major role in this Paramount project but unfortunately it is illegal to import horses to Iceland.
“This really puts a spanner in the works,” said Helga Margrét Reykdal, managing director of movie production company TrueNorth, local partner for the “Stardust” team.
Helga said that they had spoken to “relevant parties” but it appeared that the Icelandic horse was especially vulnerable to disease because it had been isolated for so many centuries and therefor people were afraid to import horses.
“This will be the first day of filming. They are coming to film winter scenes and will then continue filming in the U.K. Regarding future filming, they are interested in shooting most of the film in Iceland but horses play a big part in the movie and transporting them to the country is not allowed. That is why people are weighing the alternatives. At the moment we do not know if the project has a future here in Iceland.”
“Maybe they will be forced to find another solution, other then coming to Iceland, even though this is their dream place,” said Helga.
The filming will take place near Höfn in Hornafjördur. For this round of filming none of the star-studded crew will come to Iceland.
