THREE-time Oscar-winning actor Sir Daniel Day-Lewis has started filming a $35m budget movie in a North York Moors village with a population of less than 400.

The My Left Foot, Last Of The Mohicans and Gangs Of New York star has teamed up with Boogie Nights and Magnolia director Paul Thomas Anderson to shoot a film said to be titled The Phantom Thread, at Lythe, north of Whitby.

The actor and film crew have also visited Robin Hood’s Bay and it is understood filming will continue next week in Staithes for the movie, which will focus on the 1950s fashion industry in London.

The project will bring Daniel Day-Lewis back to the big screen for the first time since Lincoln in 2012, for which he won an Academy Award.

It is believed producers have also arranged to film some scenes on fishing boats.

The main road through Lythe was closed as scenes were shot in the St Oswald's Church cemetery, and the In The Name Of The Father star was seen walking along a path through the graveyard wearing a trenchcoat while other actors were dressed in 1950s clothes and using period vehicles.

While details of the plot remain closely guarded, entertainment websites have suggested the movie will tell the story of a British-born fashion designer Charles James, who became known as America's First Couturier.

The 59-year-old actor, other cast members and crew are understood to be staying locally, some of them at Raithwaite Estate, a luxury country retreat nearby.