HOLLYWOOD hunk Brad Pitt is preparing for his new film role based on an explorer who once lived in Seaton and Uplyme.

HOLLYWOOD hunk Brad Pitt is preparing for his new film role based on an explorer who once lived in Seaton and Uplyme.

Pitt will play Lieutenant Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, who disappeared in 1925 as he searched for an ancient civilisation in the Amazon

Since 1927, major expeditions have set of to find conclusive evidence of the explorer's fate - without success.

Born in Torquay in 1867, Fawcett travelled to South America first in 1906. He returned to England in 1910 and lived at Waterside, a big house in Uplyme.

During the First World War, he stayed in Seaton with Dr Rimell, who lived at Merrick, in Bunts Lane.

Fawcett was joined by his son, Jack, and Dr Rimell's son, Raleigh, on his final expedition to South America.

Seaton historian Ted Gosling said: "Quite a number of important people came to Seaton. But the interest here is that they're going to do a film on him and the mystery surrounding his death.

"Every decade up comes this story again - what happened? Where is he? It emerges all the time.

"With a film, it will probably be more in the people's minds.

"He came to Seaton, he was only here for a short time but, from what I've read, I imagine he was the type to be able to mix with all sorts of people. He wouldn't suffer fools but was quite a good chap to talk to."

Explorers and scientists have tried to find evidence of Fawcett and his party, and the Lost City of Z.

New evidence by author David Grann in his book The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon shows new evidence of how Fawcett died and that the city may have actually existed.

Pitt's Plan B production company and Paramount Pictures bought the rights for a film based on the book.

Pitt, 46, has been growing a beard for the role.