TURKEY TRAIL!(News)

Byline: By Matt Withers Wales on Sunday

Members of the Wales Screen Commission were in Venice last week, milking the praise for an innovative new scheme launched earlier this year to boost tourism to North Wales.

The North Wales Movie Map, a guide to 30 filming locations, provides information about the different filming backdrops used on the big and small screens.

Estimates claim it generates pounds 1m annually as fans visit the location of legendary films such as, er, Tomb Raider 2.

It's a novel idea, and thought to be one of the first maps of its kind in the world, before such famous filming venues as Los Angeles, New York and London.

There's just one problem - if you make a film in North Wales, it will be rubbish.

And, as proof, this column presents a run-down of some of the absolute howlers which North Wales has been unfortunate enough to play host to. So after reading, ask yourself - is there a curse on anything filmed just off the A55?

And, more importantly, has any tourist ever really ventured to Wales to see where Holiday on the Buses was filmed?

n Mortal Kombat - Annihilation: filmed Dinorwig Quarry, 1997

With the tagline 'Destroy All Expectations!', luckily nobody who went to see this film, based on a video game, had any.

Ranked as one of the Internet Movie Database's 100 worst films of all time for its combination of 'low funding, an unrealistically-ambitious script, worn-out ideas, wooden acting, notoriously-laughable dialogue, B-movie special effects, and repetitive fight sequences', the Wales Screen Commission saw fit to put it on the map.

n Holiday on the Buses: Pontins Prestatyn, 1974

Yes, it may have been Britain's biggest-grossing film of the year, surpassing even Diamonds Are Forever. But it's still as unfunny as a blocked fire exit in a hospice.

And there's even a plaque marking it in Prestatyn.

n Half Light: Llanddwyn Island, 2006

Described rather hopefully by one local newspaper as a 'blockbuster', this Demi Moore thriller actually went straight to Blockbuster, bypassing the cinemas.

It used Anglesey as Scotland (listen, here's some Celtic folk music!), cost several million dollars and effectively ended Demi Moore's career as a big-name draw.

Look carefully and you can still see the marks where the crew's 4x4s tore up the beautiful island, leaving a lasting legacy for tourists.

n Tomb Raider 2: Snowdonia, 2003

The Commission is obviously proud of this one, as Angelina Jolie's body adorns the front page of its site.

Pity then that it bombed at the box office, was pretty much a straight rip-off of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and was so poor as to make the original Tomb Raider seem like Citizen Kane.

It was filmed in Snowdonia, much to the pleasure of photographers across North Wales, but you'd hope they're not reliant on a film starring former Brittas Empire star Chris Barrie to lure tourists.

What else? Dot's Story (an EastEnders spin-off featuring Dot being evacuated to Wales as a child)? Carry On Up The Khyber?

A curse, I tell you...