Brad Pitt arrives in New Zealand before heading to Queenstown for Heart of the Beast filming

Brad Pitt has reportedly arrived in Auckland before heading to Queenstown to film an action thriller. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt has flown into Auckland this week, before he sets off to film in Queenstown and Milford Sound, the Herald understands.

Sources have told the Herald the 61-year-old actor is in Auckland doing pre-production work before heading south.

Queenstown will serve as a setting for Alaska during the filming of Heart of the Beast, a story about a former Navy Seal and his retired combat dog attempting to return to civilisation after suffering an accident deep in the wilderness.

Pitt’s production company Plan B also will produce the film for Paramount Pictures.

He will reunite with director David Ayer who he worked with on 2014’s World War Two action film Fury.

According to the Otago Daily Times, the shoot will last five to seven weeks before post-production takes place in Auckland.

Pitt won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) and is among Hollywood’s most bankable stars having appeared in such films as: Fight Club (1999), Moneyball (2011), Troy (2004) and Burn After Reading (2008).

Pitt was in the news recently after an AI-generated version of the actor persuaded a French woman to hand over €830,000 ($1.5m) for cancer treatment in the midst of his divorce battle with Angelina Jolie.

Anne, a 53-year-old interior designer, said she believed that she and the Hollywood star had fallen in love online and would marry, so she divorced her husband and then wired fraudsters all the money from the settlement.

The truth only started to dawn on her when she saw reports of the Fight Club star with his new girlfriend. She has filed a legal complaint for fraud and opened an online crowdfunding account to cover her legal costs.

Pitt has urged fans to be vigilant about catfishing.

In a statement to E! News, Pitt’s spokesperson said: “It’s awful that scammers take advantage of fans’ strong connection with celebrities, but this is an important reminder to not respond to unsolicited online outreach, especially from actors who have no social media presence.”

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