Da Vinci’s Demons let loose in the park

PEMBREY Country Park is becoming a hot spot for film location seekers.

In the last two years the park and Cefn Sidan Sands has doubled for Morocco; Florida, Germany, Transylvania and even a Martian landscape for film makers.

The latest was a visit from the team behind the historical fantasy Da Vinci’s Demons who have been filming some of their more exciting scenes for its third series at Pembrey Country Park.

The US and UK blockbuster series that is set in Renaissance Italy, has been filmed in the Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot areas, but the location scouting team found just what they needed in the forested dunescape of the park to recreate some of their chilling battle scenes.

The third series which will air in Spring 2015 stars Tom Rileys, Laura Haddock, Elliot Cowan, Gregg Chillin and Blake Ritson with Breaking Bad’s John Shiban joining as executive producer and showrunner.

The series follows the ‘untold’ story of one the world’s greatest geniuses, Leonardo da Vinci, during his turbulent youth in Renaissance Florence.

Da Vinci’s Demons is produced by Adjacent Productions for STARZ and executive produced by John Shiban, Jane Tranter, David S. Goyer and Matthew Bouch.

County executive board member Cllr Meryl Gravell, for Carmarthenshire Council who own the park, said in the last three years the park had been used for a dozen different productions including a major Casualty “disaster” episode, and for the key opening scenes for the last series of Atlantis and Doctor Who.

“It has been thrilling to have the professional Da Vinci’s Demons’ team really operating in the park. Despite the enormous scale of the production with extras there was no disturbance to the park’s normal day to day public business which shows the park’s great diversity. The weather was as good as anything Italy could have offered with no special lighting to replicate continental sunshine.”

Da Vinci’s Demons is produced by the BBC Worldwide-owned Adjacent Productions and is shown in 120 countries. The next season is expected to air on Fox channels in 2015.