**For those of you who remember my photos from Paronella Park, thought this might interest some, it was in todays local paper.

FROM the bright moon to a bright spotlight _ Paronella Park is set to shine in Hollywood.**

The popular tourist attraction has been tipped to be the main star of young Australian filmmaker Ben Hackworth's second feature film, Cure For Serpents.

The 30-year-old director is currently at the Cannes International Film Festival where he is trying to secure his casting wish list of bringing two award-winning Hollywood stars to the set including Australia's Rachel Griffiths and Tinseltown legend Shirley MacLaine.

Mr Hackworth said the film, to be shot at Paronella Park, tells the story of Bette, an eccentric old woman who decides to end her life in an unusual way, her young gardener and an ex-showgirl who owns a shop.

"MacLaine is the sort of woman you really could believe is like Bette, she has that quality and brings lots of different baggage and links," Mr Hackworth said.

"Rita is a tough woman and former showgirl and I thought of Griffiths because she used to be in a theatre troupe and there is something in that to give the character an organic quality.''

Signing up A-listers for only his second feature may seem ambitious but Mr Hackworth, born in Brisbane and a former Victorian College of Arts Student, has impressive credentials.

He was hand-picked by Cannes organisers this year to join a special filmmakers program called L'Atelier, in which 15 directors are flown to the world's biggest movie get-together to meet the industry's top producers and financiers.

Mr Hackworth said Cure For Serpents was inspired by the true story of Jose Paronella _ a Spanish man who built a palace for his wife in North Queensland in the 1930s.

"He made this amazing castle for his bride, all of clay, then he died after building it," he explained.

"It's been ravaged by cyclones over the years and survived and I imagined the story of this lady that has been left behind.

"I like those stories and places where really strange people end up moving, people on the margins."

Paronella Park owner Mark Evans said Mr Hackworth had been to the location eight years ago as a visitor.

"This happens a lot where people who come here keep the location at the back of their minds and come back for their wedding or to shoot a movie," Mr Evans said.

"We have had movies like Sniper and Traps filmed here but they both hold the theme of war, drugs and shooting," he said.

"To have this film shot here, which is more in keeping with the theme of Paronella Park and the continuation of Jose's dream, will be magnificent.

"I think what Baz Lurhmann's Australia did to Bowen could happen here if this is to be an international movie."

Jose Paronella's grandson Jose Paronella III was excited about the film but also held some reservations.

"Maybe I can be an extra in it," Mr Paronella said.

"The only concern I have, and not to be derogatory, is how much licence a director may have in portraying the family as they were," he said.

"It doesn't worry me what cobwebs come out but it would be nice to see the family story portrayed correctly."

Mr Paronella said he lived at Paronella Park before it was turned into a tourist attraction.

"I left in 1977 and was the last Paronella to live there," he said.

Mr Hackworth said he hoped to start shooting Cure for Serpents, which already has more than $US1 million ($1.07 million) in funding, next May.