Antique Carriages' vehicles being towed by horses during the filming of a Netflix adaptation of East of Eden, in Dunedin. Photo: Julie Hall / Supplied
Parts of Dunedin were turned into an 1800s-style Californian town over the weekend as Hollywood heavyweights filmed a new Netflix drama.
Academy Award nominee Florence Pugh is one of the actresses starring in a new adaptation of the 1952 John Steinbeck novel East of Eden being filmed in Aotearoa.
Otago local Julie Hall owns Antique Carriages, and their vehicles had a starring role on the day.
"They picked the brougham, which has got a lot of original parts in it, but it's based on an about 1880 carriage. And the other carriage they use is an original 1890 Victoria," she told RNZ's Midday Report.
"Both are four-wheel carriages. One, the Victoria has got a wee hood on it - it's an original leather hood, and the brougham is a fully enclosed carriage.
When they are not being used to shoot Hollywood dramas, the carriages "live in my little carriage shed", Hall said, or used in special events like weddings.
And she would not trust them with just any horse or driver.
"You have to keep the horses trained for using those vehicles, because it's got to be a very well-trained horse to entrust them with something that's 135 years old… You can turn something historic into matchsticks in seconds…
"As I explained to people when they want to know about driving that they sort of see these big four wheelers… it's like teaching somebody how to learn to drive a car and back a trailer at the same time."
The day spent shooting with the carriages started at 4.30am, Hall said, for wardrobe.
Florence Pugh has starred in Oppenheimer, Black Widow, Midsommar and many other movies. Photo: AFP / Frederic J. Brown
But it was not all spent rubbing shoulders with celebrities.
"I kind of have a little bit of a block around me because I'm making sure that I've got that horse safe, which means all the people going around you are safe.
"I think Florence was just at some stage sort of quite close to us, but we're so concentrated on what we're doing… we've got a live animal. On set, you've got to be very, very safe."
Antique Carriages' vehicles being towed by horses during the filming of a Netflix adaptation of East of Eden, in Dunedin. Photo: Julie Hall / Supplied
She said a lot of work had gone on to turn Dunedin into an 1800s-style town.
"The first people on there are the location people, and so they're going and blocking out lines and doing all sorts of things and taking down the modern signs, and all that happens long before anybody gets there and so it looks nice and old.
"It was a lovely old little news stand set up and The Distinction Hotel, you know, it used to be a lovely old post office here and now it's this hotel - they had a newsstand out in front of it and it was all in that old writing, and yeah, it just looked really magical."
Filming began in October. Previously the cast and crew were shooting in Oamaru.
Also starring in the seven-episode series will be Christopher Abbott, Mike Faist, Hoon Lee, Tracy Letts, Martha Plimpton, Ciaran Hinds, Joe Anders and Joseph Zada.
The script was adapted from Steinbeck's book by Zoe Kazan, whose grandfather Elia Kazan directed the 1950s film adaptation starring James Dean.
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