A flock of sheep from a British farm is starring alongside Hugh Jackman in a Hollywood blockbuster.
The animals became characters for The Sheep Detectives – with filmmakers even studying how their lips moved to make them as realistic as possible.
The painstaking process involved a huge dome fitted with hundreds of cameras capturing every angle of the woolly stars.
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Farm owner Elizabeth Miller said she had no idea the project would become a major movie featuring Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson.
“The producer and director came here and had a look around and chose the sheep they absolutely wanted for the film, which was very exciting and we were delighted,” as reported by What’s The Jam
“They went away and said, ‘Yep, you’re the farm we’ll use for 30 to 40 of the characters’.
“I had no idea of what the film was, that it was this big, this exciting.”
Elizabeth, who runs Miller’s Ark Animals in Hook, Hants, said visual effects supervisor Graham Page first visited the farm and immediately fell in love with a sheep called Lily.
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The animal later became the lead sheep in the film.
The director and producer later returned to choose more characters, with some appearing almost exactly as they looked in real life.
“When they said they wanted a kind of intelligent one, they wanted one that was a bit daft, we said this breed is very intelligent, this breed is a bit daft.
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“And it all fell into place,” Elizabeth said.
“The first tranche of filming was with lots and lots of cameras.
“They bought a very special dome of hundreds of cameras from Pinewood so they could really get every part of the sheep.
“Then they did individual filming to see how their mouths moved.
“It was incredible, the detail that they went into to get absolutely how sheep move and behave.”
Elizabeth has run the farm in Hook, Hampshire, for 35 years.
Other sheep used in the film included Nobby, a Norfolk Horn ram from Williton, Somerset.
Although Jackman, who plays farmer George in the movie, did not visit the farm during filming, he later met some of his fluffy co-stars.
“He was really lovely and was really comfortable with the sheep, which was nice to see,” Elizabeth added.
She said it was a great privilege to be involved in the production and was delighted the farm was mentioned in the film’s credits.
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