April/May 2006 saw a small Hollywood invasion of the Uig and Staffin areas when the area became a location for Paramount Picture's blockbuster fantasy movie Stardust.

Starring Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, Sienna Miller and Charlie Cox. the $50m plus film, is based on a Neil Gaiman fantasy novel adapted by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman and directed by Matthew Vaughn,. It tells of a young man who promises his love he'll retrieve a fallen star for her by venturing into a magical realm inhabited by witches, goblins, gnomes, talking animals and evil trees.

Michelle Pfeiffer, cast as an evil witch, was seen shooting in the Fairy Glen just above Uig. De Niro, playing a pirate called Captain Shakespeare, was expected to be shooting other scenes later. A second round of shooting required the main road between Flodigarry and Digg to be closed off and covered with earth, and apparently benign trees planted on the verges.

As if the production team wasn't satisfied by some of Skye's most mysterious landscapes, they went on to film in Iceland. Clearly Stardust is a film to look out for, especially to check out the outrageously valuable goats (£10,000 each, they say) that pulled Ms Pfeiffer's chariot.

Courtesy of Geoff Holman