Sarah Slater
Filming on the Disenchanted, the sequel to Disney hit Enchanted, starts in the fairytale transformed Wicklow village of Enniskerry today.
Disenchanted is a live-action, animated musical romantic comedy and is the follow-up to the 2007 fantasy film which will see Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey return to reprise their updated roles.
It is a massive budget production with Disney betting big on the follow-up 14 years after the original which starred Adams as Giselle, an animated woman set to marry Prince Edward, who finds herself trapped in the real world — the film switches from animation to live-action.
She meets the dashing divorce lawyer, Robert played by Dempsey, and soon finds out that living in the real world with all of its real problems is not really all that bad and that true love can find you when you least expect it.
If members of the public are planning a trip to catch a glimpse of Patrick Dempsey or Amy Adams, then it's a good idea to know the filming schedule. A sign has been put up in the small town of Enniskerry, featuring a break-down of the shoot dates ahead of filming.
Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey will reprise their roles in the Disney sequel.
The village will be closed for the most part of their filming hours on shoot dates. They will be filming between the hours of 7am and 10pm from Monday, June 14th until Friday, June 18th.
They will return July 6th to July 9th between the hours of 5pm and 7pm and then again on Wednesday, July 21st and Thursday, July 22nd from 7am until 10pm.
Signs dotted across the village also state that there will be no parking day or night on any of the shoot dates.
Gardaí and a traffic management team will be assisting with diversions on shoot dates.
Church Hill will be closed to all traffic during filming hours.
Main Street will be closed on Tuesday, while a stop and go system will be in place for all other shoot dates.
Bus scheduled services and emergency vehicles will be accommodated on R117 on all days.
James Marsden plays Prince Edward while Maya Rudolph, Yvette Nicole Brown and Jayma Mays are also all cast in roles.
Scenes for the musical feature film have taken place in several locations including Dundalk, Dublin city centre and Greystones with filming expected to take place over four months — from May to August.
International film makers Walt Disney Studios sent out three major casting calls for Irish talent, for Disenchanted which they named earlier this year.
A casting call from the Studios in Dublin requested “technically trained dancers” for roles in the sequel was made last month. It is understood hundreds of extras will be involved in the musical with production staff being inundated with applications.
The casting is being run by a well-known Irish movie, theatre choreographer and set director Belinda Murphy. Hundreds of extras have been drafted in to play various roles in the film.
The sequel has been a long time coming, having been in development since way back in 2010. The characters Giselle, Robert and Morgan have since moved from New York to the suburbs.
Disenchanted will pick up 10 years after her happily ever after, where Giselle, played by Adams, questions her happiness, inadvertently turning the lives of those in the real world and Andalasia upside down in the process.
Meanwhile, Covid-19 testing is continuing daily on cast and crew members in the RDS in Dublin and on film locations. It is understood that €10 million alone has been set aside for virus testing by the big budget bosses.
