Museum exhibit’s starring role in new Marvel blockbuster
A RUSSIAN helicopter on show at a Weston-super-Mare museum has a starring role in a new blockbuster film.
The Mil-8 helicopter, housed at Weston Helicopter Museum, takes to the skies once again - with a little help from CGI trickery - in the latest Marvel Studios blockbuster, Black Widow, with star Scarlett Johansson at its controls.
The Mil-8 is one of the biggest exhibits at the museum.
Following discussions with museum officials and the film production company, the 25-metre aircraft, which weighs 7,000kgs, was disassembled and put on two low loaders and taken to Pinewood Studios and other filming locations.
Once filming was completed, it was returned to the museum and is now back on public display, presented in a new Marvel colour scheme.
Museum manager Lee Mills said: “For the film, all the interior seating was removed from the aircraft and the shape of the windows were altered to match the military style required.
“It was then completely repainted twice with specialist ‘movie paint’ to play not one, but two separate roles in the film, before being lifted up on a crane in front of a giant green screen to ‘fly again’ on camera.
“Internal scenes inside the helicopter were filmed with actresses Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh and a host of extras with camera rails installed to provide fast moving tracking shots of the interior.”
The official Black Widow trailer shows the helicopter escaping a giant avalanche and Scarlett Johansson jumping out of its open doorway on a zip line.
Black Widow was released in UK cinemas on Wednesday and is also available to watch on Disney+.