By Garry Maddox
IT HAS been a sightseeing event in the inner west. Walkers have brought binoculars, cyclists have swung by and locals have gathered to smoke, drink beer and ask each other: ''Has anyone seen Leo or Spidey?''
The focus of interest has been the former White Bay Power Station at Rozelle. The elusive duo are Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Spider-Man Maguire.
While they have been hard to distinguish amid scores of extras in 1920s outfits, the two biggest stars in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby have brought a touch of Hollywood to the dilapidated industrial site.
In a week that has seen plenty of other star power in Sydney - Val Kilmer for a comic convention, comedian Eddie Izzard, the Notebook author, Nicholas Sparks, for a new novel and a plumed Kardashian flying south for the winter - Luhrmann has been shooting night scenes in a small settlement known as the Valley of the Ashes for the 3D movie.
The grim set included Wilson's garage, where Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton) visits his mistress, Myrtle Wilson (Isla Fisher). In a romantic drama that has the gilded Jay Gatsby (DiCaprio) yearning for Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan), the valley is the scene for a tragic road accident at the movie's climax.
After starting at Fox Studios, where buildings from 1920s New York have been recreated inside the soundstages, filming on the $120 million-plus adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous novel has passed the halfway mark.
Luhrmann will return to Fox Studios next week then shoot exteriors for Gatsby's castle at St Patrick's College in Manly.
At another former inner-suburb industrial site, CarriageWorks in Eveleigh, it was even busier as the director George Miller finished the sequel to his animation Happy Feet.
Created by more than 600 crew in an old railway shed that has been turned into an animation studio, Happy Feet Two centres on Mumble the penguin dealing with a son who is keener on flying than dancing.
The sequel has its own Hollywood star power. As well as Elijah Wood and Robin Williams returning, Miller has another two of Hollywood's biggest names as krill named Will and Bill - Brad Pitt and Matt Damon.
While Gatsby will open at Christmas next year, Happy Feet Two will be released in a fortnight in the United States then on Boxing Day in Australia.