STANLEY is going back to the 1920s.

The bitumen has been covered with gravel, the street signs, bins and metal railings have been taken down, buildings have been covered with facades and the wharf has been rebuilt.

‘‘They’re pulling down anything that doesn’t look like it belonged in the 1920s,’’ Circular Head Tourism Association president Clint Walker said last week.

The seaside town on the North-West, that is famous for The Nut, is getting ready for filming to start on The Light Between Oceans.

The DreamWorks Studios film is an adaptation of M.L Steadman’s novel of the same name and will star Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz, from The Mummy, and X-Men star Michael Fassbender.

The pair will be among more than 100 cast and crew, including Tasmanians, filming in the town next week.

Mr Walker said filming would take place over six days in three locations; at the wharf, in the main street and at the Highfield historic site.

He said people had been visiting the town for weeks, but next week was the one most were excited about.

‘‘There’s a buzz about the town,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s all people are talking about.

‘‘All the blokes that have got roles have got full faces of hair and big bushy beards, because they’ve been asked to grow them out. It’s going to be very interesting.’’

Arts Minister Vanessa Goodwin said the government had been working with Screen Tasmania to offer Queenstown locals jobs during the film production.

Five Queenstown residents have been employed as security personnel and 10 have been cast to work on the production.

‘‘Screen Tasmania worked with producers of The Light Between Oceans to secure this opportunity for Stanley, and they have also worked with a number of other production companies to provide support for preliminary scouting in Tasmania and crew and casting information,’’ Ms Goodwin said.

She said the Tasmanian screen industry was its strongest and most active in 35 years.

‘‘In the last quarter, Screen Tasmania had 11 in-bound productions pursuing Tasmania as a filming destination,’’ Ms Goodwin said.

‘‘These productions have varying budget levels ranging from mid-range budgets under $10 million to budgets exceeding $300 million.

‘‘We are now seeing what is hopefully just the beginning of a boom period for the film industry in Tasmania.’’

The Light Between Oceans production team is expected to spend $1 million on Tasmanian goods and services, accommodation, crew and extras casting over the production, including the five weeks of pre-production and one week of filming.

Many Stanley accommodation facilities are booked out for the week.

The production marks the second to be filmed in Tasmania in the past few months, with drama-television series The Kettering Incident, featuring The Great Gatsby’s Elizabeth Debicki and former Offspring star Matthew Le Nevez, currently being filmed in Kettering, in the state’s South.

Scenes from The Light Between Oceans are also being filmed in New Zealand.

Mr Walker said the Circular Head Tourism Association would work with Tourism Tasmania and Screen Tasmania, to ensure the North-West got the best benefit from the blockbuster movie.

‘‘What we’re told (by DreamWorks) is that movies that are based on best selling books have the best opportunity to succeed as movies,’’ he said.

He said many people that watch movies were often inclined to travel to the places where they are filmed.

‘‘The real opportunity that we have is with the Stanley Nut,’’ he said.

‘‘There is nothing else that looks like the Stanley nut so it is therefore going to be very easily identified.’’

He said one of the first things the association would do was to put up photos of The Nut on social media so that people could recognise it.

He said more ideas about how to help the town benefit from the film would be developed closer to the movies’ release date.

The production team will return the town back to normal once filming ends.