Renee Zellweger Is Beatrix Potter

England's Cumbria and Lake District are sure to get a boost in 2007, after Renee Zellweger's new movie Miss Potter, in which she plays Beatrix Potter, opens in January

A new movie with big names is always a boost for the area where it was filmed, especially when the area is as beautiful as England's Lake District, in Cumbria. But will the scenery outshine the star of Miss Potter, Renee Zellweger, who plays the writer Beatrix Potter? We'll know when the film is released on January 5, 2007.

Beatrix Potter wrote 23 books about such popular children's characters as Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, the Flopsy Bunnies and Jemima Puddle-Duck. In contrast, some of Renee Zellweger's movies so far have been Bridget Jones's Diary, Cold Mountain, Murder in the Heartland and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation!

So successful were Beatrix Potter's books that she was able to buy and run a sheep farm in the Lake District, to which she added cottages, land and more farms. When she died she left it all, including 15 farms and 4000 acres of land, to England's National Trust, to look after it for future generations. In the Lake District you can visit The World of Beatrix Potter, which Renee Zellweger and other cast members also visited while filming the new movie.

The movie also stars Ewan McGregor and was directed by Chris Noonan, of Babe fame. You can read more about it, and about Beatrix Potter's Lake District, by clicking here.

Find out about visiting Beatrix Potter's home, Hill Top, by checking on the National Trust website here.

Check out this new website too: www.visitmisspotter.com

Read the Miss Potter Movie blog here.

Read about the Lake District hotel which has put on a special Beatrix Potter Menu by clicking here.