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| Castel Films' Studios are located near a small village called Snagov, about a 25-minute ride from northern Bucharest. Snagov is notable for being the burial place of Prince Vlad Ţepeş [pronounced tse- PEZH], also known as Dracula. He's reportedly buried under this Monastery (left) on a small island in the middle of Lake Snagov. The old Transylvanian peasants believed that the undead couldn't cross running water, so they buried him here and put a church over it. Not that they necessarily believed he was a vampire...they just weren't taking any chances. Other unruly peasants destroyed Vlad's main palace in the Algeş Valley, further north in the Carpathian mountains. |
| (left) the castle set for the 1999 film Beowulf, starring Christopher Lambert |
| (right) a lonely grip walks the street on the western backlot area |
| (left) looking toward an old set and into the forest behind the studio wall. Those aren't frozen leaves on the trees, it's the fog from the night before that crystallized onto the bare branches. Yup, it has to get pretty cold to do that! |
| (right) Greetings from Little Amerika! No, it's not that faux town in Siberia where the Soviets used to train their spies. It's the snowed-over cul-de-sac in a pretend American neighborhood on the Castel backlot. The smoke behind the middle house is coming from the studio sawmill behind it. When they need wood to build a set, they send a couple of burly Romanians into the forest to chop down some trees, and build everything right there. |
| (left) How's that for respect? At Castel, they remember every actor who's ever played a principal role for them by stenciling their name onto one of many sound stage walls. They do the same for directors, DPs and art directors. |
| (right) Relaxing in a Bucharest pub after wrapping for the day. (left to right) Romanian actor Vitalie Bantas, Canadian Brigitta Dau, Robert's girlfriend (name?), Robert Radoveanu, and American Stephen Blackehart (yours truly), all from the cast of Retro Puppet Master. |
| (right) Some of the soundstages in the distance, as seen from the makeup and dressing facilities. To the far right, you can see part of a plane that had been used on a recent film, and behind it, the edge of the western backlot. |
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