Freddie Mercury actor Rami Malek has been filmed in scenes for a new spy thriller which is being made for Disney Plus.

Film crews for the new drama about the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) were at St Antony's College yesterday.

There were film trucks lining Bevington Road and Winchester Road and film crews could be seen inside the college grounds.

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It is understood that a cafe at the college was used as the set for a CIA cafe.

A security guard and an employee for the film crew confirmed that filming was taking place for the spy thriller but would not confirm Mr Malek was on location.

Oxford Mail: Film trucks outside St Antony's College

The plot of Amateur follows a CIA cryptographer Charles Heller played by Malek who, after his wife is tragically killed in a London terrorist attack, demands his bosses go after them.

The CIA refuses and when it becomes clear they won't act due to conflicting internal priorities, the cryptographer takes matters into his own hands and blackmails the agency into training him.

Mr Malek is no stranger to thriller territory, having starred in Mr Robot for four seasons before the show ended in 2019.

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Since winning the Oscar for Best Actor for his role as Queen singer Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, he has played key supporting roles on the big screen, such as The Little Things, No Time to Die, and Amsterdam. 

Oxford Mail: Filming at St Antony's College

Slow Horses‘ James Hawes is directing the movie called Amateur, which is authored by Gary Spinelli, with Hutch Parker and Dan Wilson producing.

The film also stars Laurence Fishburne and Julianne Nicholson.

St Antony's College is the home of The Asian Studies Centre, which was founded in 1982, as the successor to the Far East Centre (established in 1954).

Its activities are supported by an endowment at the College and from external grants.

Like its predecessor, the Asian Studies Centre is primarily a co-ordinating organisation which exists to bring together specialists from a wide variety of different disciplines.

Oxford Mail: A film truck at St Antony's College

Geographically, the Centre predominantly covers South, Southeast and East Asia. The Asian Studies Centre works closely with scholars in the Facutly of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, the Oxford China Centre, the South Asian Studies and the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies (in premises at St Antony's).

Many Oxford colleges have been used as film sets in recent decades, particularly for scenes in episodes of Inspector Morse, Lewis and Endeavour, all inspired by the novels written by Oxford author Colin Dexter.

The last series of Endeavour - series nine - was screened on ITV earlier this year.

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About the author 

Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here. 

He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.

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