Last September, I visited Belfast, Northern Ireland, to explore the set of Fox-Walden's latest family adventure, "City of Ember." The former ship-building town isn't known for its movie facilities, but its sea-faring history brought director Gil Kenan ("Monster House") and his talented production team to the region, which has finally turned the corner after decades of religious conflict. When adapting Jeanne Duprau's 2003 novel of the same name, Kenan soon discovered Hollywood studios weren't big enough to recreate the novel's intricate underground city. He needed a bigger place. Only the massive, former Harland and Wolff paint hall in the Belfast Ship Yards, which housed the infamous Titanic cruise liner, would do.

The story of "Ember" focuses on two of the city's young inhabitants: Lina Mayfleet (Saoirse Ronan from "Atonement") and Doon Harrow (newcomer Harry Treadaway). For more than 200 years, the people of Ember have survived in a world lit only by thousands of lights above them. However, a long line of corrupt mayors, including the latest (played by Bill Murray) have kept the citizens from leaving a community that was only set up to be temporary. With the lights slowly and dangerously dimming more and more each day, Lina and Doon join forces to search for an escape before the lights go out forever.

A proud Kenan joins our visiting press group as we walk through the sprawling sets conceived by production designer Martin Laing. The film's crew ambitiously recreated almost half the city mapped in Duprau's book, and their work is truly eye-popping. At the center of the set is Harken Square, where the town's major services converge, and a water fountain that, like much of the city, is in need of repair. We walk up some stairs to Loon's small home (completely built within this massive set) and visit Lina's home as well. We also spend time on the impressive sets for the generator, the pipeworks (the hydraulic system that keeps the generator running) and the mayor's retro-'70s office that overlooks the main square. The level of detail is award-worthy (if academy members could have only visited!), and the design feels like a Utopian world that needs a good cleaning (the residents could use a good cleaning as well).

Kenan was involved with "Ember" long before his career break on "Monster House," and he knew the city's set was integral to making the movie work.

"Every single character in this film is defined by their relationship to this city, either past, present or future," Kenan says. "In every conversation I've had with my cast, the conversation begins by exploring their relationship to the other human characters in their world and concludes by defining their relationship to the city itself."

The filmmaker is also excited by the prospect of taking the book's puzzle-solving aspects and translating them on-screen.

"I really believe that people don't go to films in general, or films like this in particular, to see people reading on-screen," Kenan says. "So, a lot of the work that I and [screenwriter] Caroline Thompson have done has been in taking something that's purely a word-based mystery and making it visual and epic."

Judging by the impressive city that's been built (and, unfortunately, dismantled after production wrapped), he's halfway there.

"City of Ember" opens nationwide Oct. 10.

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