Huddersfield and Marsden is to take to the big screen when star-studded film Walk Like a Panther is released on Friday.
The town hall, brewery Magic Rock and the village streets of Marsden all feature heavily in the film which stars Stephen Graham, Jill Halfpenny, Sue Johnston and Stephen Tompkinson.
Walk Like a Panther is the brainchild of director Dan Cadan, born in Meltham, who wanted to use his home town as a location for the film, which tells the story of a group of ‘80s wrestlers who don the lycra once last time to save their beloved pub from closure.
Dan said: “Although the underdog story of Walk Like a Panther could work practically anywhere on the planet, West Yorkshire was the only place I could shoot the film.
“I grew up (well got older in age at least) in Huddersfield. Born in Meltham, moved to Birdsedge at 11 before tying the spotted hankie on a stick and heading to London at 22.
“But I knew I had to return to my roots to make Panther. It’s a film about community, acceptance, loss and family – all things that we wrestle with, in one way or another, on a daily basis.
“I wanted to give the film a slightly heightened reality and it could not be yet another ‘it’s grim up north’ story. It needed to be a true representation of my home county and so it had to be bright, colourful and aspirational. I would also need to collaborate with old friends and locals. Meltham, Marsden, Huddersfield Town Hall and West Nab would all provide locations and backdrops to make the story authentic.
“Kirklees Council went above and beyond, Dixons Ices were invaluable and my old pal Richard Burhouse and his entire crew at Magic Rock Brewing gave us something quite spectacular.”
And to mark its release the team at the award-winning Magic Rock Brewing have created a Panther Pale Ale.
Richard Burhouse and his team created Panther Pale Ale, which features four different peelable labels with 70’s style billboard adverts inside advertising some of the wrestling characters from the film.
It is available at the Taproom of the Birkby-based brewery in 330ml cans from our Taproom.
It’s a limited edition, so once it’s gone it’s gone.
Dan added: “Aside from the brewery playing host to our sinister villain, Paul Peterson (Stephen Tompkinson) in a pivotal scene with Trevor Bolton (Dave Johns), Richard and co have created an iconic beverage ... all as I can say is that we tasted it and our batch didn’t last long.”
Walk Like a Panther is set for release on Friday - it has confirmed showings at the Printworks in Manchester and Everyman Cinema in Leeds.
Local cinemas say they are confirming their schedule on Tuesday and could not say if it features.
