Blackpool tower picture by Flickr User llamnudds

An interactive online film has been created to allow visitors to star in their own film in Blackpool and share it online with their friends and family. The move is to encourage more visitors to the seaside resort. Users can upload their favourite pictures to The Movie’s microsite www.blackpoolthemovie.com and automatically share their virtual adventure with friends and family online.

Blackpool: The Movie has been designed by Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board to encourage potential holidaymakers to visit the resort and to maximize internet chatter on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Youtube.

The trailer provides a tour of Blackpool’s top attractions accompanied by a voiceover by the X Factor’s Peter Dickson. By entering their family name and home town, users will see their personal details become an integral part of the trailer, appearing on billboards, posters and lighting up the sky alongside a pyrotechnic firework display.

All entries will be entered into a prize draw and for one family to win annual passes to Blackpool attractions.

Mike Wilkinson of Lancashire Tourist Board said: “Blackpool has made a name for itself as a destination which uses leading-edge technology to encourage tourists to visit Blackpool and Blackpool: The Movie marks an exciting venture into the new world of virtual tourism.”

Keira Knightley

No matter how beautiful she actually is, Keira Knightley doesn’t look great in the costume she’s wearing in our photo on the website (news pages), does she? The wig just doesn’t do it for her. Never mind – it’s a great film by all accounts and many of us at Merricks Publishing are looking forward to seeing it.

As I say in the news piece, Knightley chose a holiday cottage to stay in during filming in the Peak District, and the owner said she was ‘a delight’ to be around. I can believe it. In a recent interview with Sam Wollaston of the Guardian, she comes across as someone with a wicked sense of humour who doesn’t take herself too seriously. Here’s an extract from Sam’s piece (or read it in full he re:   Dirty pretty thing).

‘When we talk about her work, she purrs. No, not literally – that would be weird – but she speaks easily, and appears content and relaxed. When I attempt to steer the conversation towards her life outside work, the claws come out. In a very good-natured, playful way, it has to be said. At times the interview feels like a sparring match, and she gives as good as she gets, if not better. She’s very entertaining company, and it’s fun – trying to get under the guard of Keira Knightley.

‘This will sound like the tragic fantasy of a male journalist who has fallen under the spell of a very pretty young lady and somehow imagines he could be her friend, but although she does speak awful proper, there is something nicely unstarry about her. Perhaps it’s being sworn at, but I’m finding it hard to remember that I am talking to the second highest-paid actress in Hollywood last year.’

If you know of any other pieces of information relating to films being made on location in the British Isles, do please let us know.