Hollywood star Billy Zane has been exploring Canberra, having finished shooting a film in the capital.
Zane - best known for his roles as The Phantom and Cal Hockley in Titanic - is featuring in an independent sci-fi action film, Blue World Order, directed by Canberra writers Che Baker and Dallas Bland.
The film finished its principal photography on Wednesday, having begun on January 27.
"We finished with a flashback scene with Billy Zane and it was great. It was the end of a long month, I think it was day 25, which is what we'd scheduled and we had a really successful shoot," Baker said.
Zane tweeted praise from his visit to the National Gallery of Australia on Thursday, saying Canberra was a "stunning futurist city".
Infront of
@JacksonPollack1 Blue Poles at the NGA in Canberra Australia. Great collection. Stunning futurist city.
pic.twitter.com/gLbM38QSIi — Billy Zane (@BillyZane)
March 4, 2015
Spotted at the Gallery:
@BillyZane, Hollywood star, artist, and James Turrell fan!
#NGATurrell
pic.twitter.com/koe9YWq2UX — National Gallery (@NatGalleryAus)
March 5, 2015
The photos were actually shot on Tuesday, according to Baker, who said he met Zane on the set of Morgan's Ferry which he worked on in a break from working on Dawson's Creek in the '90s.
"We just kind of hit it off, I guess he took a shine to me for some reason and we've kept in touch over the years. He absolutely loved Canberra, he is a big cyclist so he very much enjoyed cycling around the lake," he said, adding the star was in town for five days.
Shooting locations for the film included the Canberra Glassworks and the Yarralumla brickworks.
The Hobbit star Steve Hunter, also cast in the film, said the five weeks of shooting in the capital gave him a strong appreciation of Turkish Halal Pide House in Yarralumla.
"I think they know me by name now," he said.
Hunter said Canberra reminded him of growing up in New Zealand, and he spent his time here learning to ride again.
"I've bought a road bike just after Christmas so I thought this is a good place to ride it properly so did all the trails around the lake which was pretty good. You do all these fantastic rides without being bowled over by cars," he said.
Hunter said he met Baker on the set of the Hobbit and that it was a credit to the directors and producers they were able to get names like Zane on board.
"[Zane] was lovely, so for someone like him to come down here and do a project ... He was really keen to do it and obviously to get him on a movie of this scale was a real coup," Hunter said.
Blue World Order is set in a post-apocalyptic landscape where all children have been killed by a massive electromagnetic pulse that also released a virus into the population.
Only one man - played by Jake Ryan - is immune to the virus, with his daughter Amy the only surviving child on the planet.
The cast also includes Australian actor Jack Thompson, and novelist Matthew Reilly is one of the producers.
Baker said he hoped more series would be filmed in Canberra so a sustainable film industry could develop.
