The sound of clapperboards could be heard echoing around the Colne Valley after filming for a major international film gets under way.

Schools, shops and streets in Linthwaite and Marsden will be recast in a whole new Hollywood light to turn award-winning fantasy tale, A Monster Calls, into a reality.

Dozens of youngsters from Colne Valley High School are amongst those who will get a starring role in the film, which was originally written as a children’s novel by Patrick Ness, when they appear as extras in a scene being shot on location on Sunday.

The film stars huge Hollywood superstars Liam Neeson and Sigourney Weaver, but they are not expected on location this week.

The shoot, which is amongst the most high profile to ever be shot in the area, will be the beginning of the end of much hard work for director Juan Antonio Bayona, who was also responsible for The Impossible and The Orphanage, and his team, who have spent weeks obtaining permission to enable pupils to take part.

The school is just one of several places being used to feature in the movie, which follows the moving tale of a boy, Conor, played by youngster Lewis MacDougall, who is visited by a story-telling monster whilst struggling to come to terms with his mother’s terminal cancer.

Starring Neeson as the monster and Weaver as his grandma, the film will give Marsden’s Derby Terrace and well-loved community charity bookshop, The Cuckoo’s Nest bottom shop, the star treatment next Tuesday, when they will be used to capture the boy’s morning journey to school.

The shop, which has been has been closed from today until next Thursday, has been transformed into a traditional arts’ supply shop.

Hazel Seidel, shop worker and board member for the charity, which provides grants to local causes, said: “We’re all excited about it, especially the chance to see some of the cast.

“Obviously it means closing the shop for three days but the money we have been given from the team for it is definitely worth the while from the charity’s point of view.”

Alien: Resurrection (1997)
Alien: Resurrection (1997)

It is unlikely that residents will get a glimpse of Mr Neeson, who will be filmed wearing performance capture suits used to create Golum in Lord of the Rings and will give voice-overs in the studio.

The facade of Colne Valley Conservative councillor, Donna Bellamy, and her neighbour’s stone-terraced homes in Woods Terrace, will also be recognisable as Conor’s home on the silver screen, which is due to hit US cinemas on October 2016 before being launched in Europe.

Donna, whose house will be the focus of filming on October 13, said: “I think they approached us because of the view-from here you can see across the valley and down into Marsden.

“It’s good to see they’re using the village and it’s got to be the scenery that attracts them. We live in the most beautiful place in England, after all.”

Locations in Diggle and Uppermill are rumoured to make an appearance in the movie, whilst more scenes will be shot in Spain.

It is the latest in a long string of location accolades for the valley, where camera crews have been a common sight for years to film classics such as Last of the Summer Wine and more recent hit TV Shows, Where The Heart Is, The League of Gentlemen, In the Flesh, Bananas and Last Tango in Halifax.

You can see images of more Huddersfield on TV and film in our story here.