IN early March last year, rumours started circulating within a small, seaside town that a number of "secret" meetings and mysterious visits had been held.

Talk of a film director touring sites and meeting council officials triggered an air of excitement among the people of the otherwise modest town of Redcar, east Cleveland.

Then, on March 7, The Northern Echo broke the news that the seaside venue was to be transformed into the set of a Hollywood blockbuster.

It was announced that film director Joe Wright planned to use Redcar beach to shoot scenes for his latest movie, based on Ian McEwan's best-selling novel, Atonement.

Starting in 1935 in a Surrey mansion, Atonement tells how a 13-year-old girl's overactive imagination shatters the lives of her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie, who Cecilia loves.

It then moves on to 1940, with McEwan writing about the brutality and hell of the retreat to Dunkirk.

Redcar beach would be transformed into Dunkirk for scenes of the Second World War evacuation.

For some, the news was hard to believe, and many locals were unsure whether the talk would turn into reality.

But shortly after the news broke, negotiations over the production requirements began.

The film's location manager, Adam Richards, said: "My brief was to find a beach, with industry in the background, so we have been scouring the East Coast.

"I started down in Suffolk, going north through Lincolnshire following the coast and came to Redcar. It just ticked so many of the boxes.

"When myself and the production designer first came across Redcar at the end of last year, we both knew this was the location we had been looking for - there really was no point looking anywhere else."

Planning permission was submitted to Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council and, once passed, a formal contract was signed between Working Title Films and the council.

The plans included building a bombed-out house, a building being transformed into a seaside hotel, tonnes of rubble and sand being brought in to cover the roads and pavements, the digging of bomb craters and placing assorted vehicles and boats on the beach.

Fifty members of the company's technical team visited the town to inspect locations and make preparations for the transformation of parts of Redcar into wartime scenes.

Film agency Northern Film and Media started a recruitment drive for up to 1,000 local extras to take part.

In August, hundreds of cast and crew arrived in the small seaside town for the five-day shoot.

Within weeks, Redcar was restored and it was business as usual after residents waved goodbye to the staff and crew.

Mr Richards paid tribute to everyone involved.

He said: "It really has been a superb experience working in Redcar. The location is tremendous and the extras were some of the best we have worked with in terms of their commitment and patience."

But one thing was certain, Redcar would never forget the week Hollywood came to town.