Well worth a look on BBC2 tonight at 8pm Shooting The Hollywood Stars. The UK’s leading fashion photographer Ian Rankin shows how he re-creates “some of Hollywood’s most iconic images”.

Image: Isle of Wight Cllr Dawn Cousins Mirrors Hollywood Star.   Copyright IWDIG Member Lucy Johnson.

Epitomised by gorgeous images of screen goddesses Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich to brooding shots of Marlon Brando; from the unparalleled allure of pictures of Marilyn Monroe to iconic black and white stills of Charlie Chaplin.   Rankin, will reveal the rich history of Hollywood photography and how its most influential and enduring images were created.

Rankin immerses himself in the art of the Hollywood portrait and explores the vital role it has played in both the movie business and our continuing love affair with movie stars, from Hollywood’s golden age.

To understand how the image makers of Hollywood created these iconic photographs, Rankin recruits a cast of leading Hollywood actors to help him recreate some of the most important – including Leslie Mann (Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin); Selma Blair (Legally Blonde, Cruel Intentions), British actor Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters, Dylan Thomas’s biopic The Edge of Love); actor extraordinaire Michael Sheen (The Damned United, Frost/Nixon), and living Hollywood legend Jane Russell.

Well worth a look on BBC2 tonight (Saturday 8th January 2011) at 8pm.