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By Dan Mayfield
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Friday, 02 November 2007 02:43 |
No, it isn’t low-income housing. Nor is it a new retail building, or even the beginnings of a new arena — no matter what the Downtown rumor mill would have you believe.
At the intersection of Third Street and Silver Avenue in Downtown Albuquerque, the giant mess of construction is the set for the film “Game,” which starts shooting Saturday.
The set, a pile of giant shipping containers and some fake walls, certainly looks like something more. But it’s all fake. So fake that the walls are made of foam because it looks like concrete when it’s blown up.
“Unless the wind is blowing,” joked Michael Umble, “Game” publicity manager.
Sure, the film is an exciting futuristic adventure, but the film is also the first major feature like this to be produced by a local guy.
David Rubin moved to Albuquerque three years ago from Los Angeles when his wife was offered a job here. He has become a regular Albuquerquean — well, one who commutes to L.A. to make film deals happen.
Rubin has an impressive résumé in the film world. He was the producer of “Soul Plane” and the film “Believe in Me,” which was shot entirely in New Mexico. But he might best be known for his work on “Crank,” a movie with only action.
“Crank” followed an assassin who’d been injected with a poison that would kill him if his heart rate dropped. It’s a fast-paced thriller that keeps viewers’ hearts pumping too.
“Game,” written by the same guys who wrote “Crank,” is just as conceptual. Criminals in a futuristic world can earn their freedom if they play a variety of games. It stars Gerard Butler of “300” fame.
Through making his other films, Rubin said, he’d scouted Albuquerque and New Mexico and fell in love with the state.
“We’re not here for the incentives,” he said. “We don’t care.”
Well, he does care, but he said his commute to the office in L.A., despite a 90-minute flight, is still shorter now than his old one. He has a higher standard of living in a more relaxed atmosphere and he’d been eager to make a film here.
“We’re filming here because of the ability to do what we need to,” he said. “Albuquerque reached out to us.
“When you speak to people in the movie business, any opportunity they have not to live in Los Angeles is a golden opportunity,” he said. “You can still do your job from here.”
And, he said, it’s getting easier every day what with the state’s growing film industry, and specifically with Albuquerque Studios in our backyard.
“L.A. is not a film-friendly place,” he said.
New Mexico is, and more than 2,500 people have stepped up to be a part of “Game,” including hundreds of extras needed for the games, he said.
The film, much like “Crank,” will rely on several spectacular stunts. Darren Prescott, the stunt coordinator, has worked on “Jackass Number Two” — yes, those were stunts — “Spider-Man 3” and “Crank.” About 25 stunt people have been hired for the more technical work.
The most public part of the filming will be that Downtown set. The shipping crates are supposed to be futuristic lowincome housing. The buildings, which are just facades, are simply there to be blown up.
Much of the film will be shot at the BMX motorcycle track near the University of New Mexico baseball practice facility, as well as at a gypsum mine on Zia Pueblo, and at Albuquerque Studios.
Rubin said he took a harder route to learning how to produce films than many do.
“I sort of got into the business by getting coffee and stuff for producers,” he said.
Of course, he does have the academic credentials — a New York University Film School diploma goes a long way.
RED KEEPS “GAME” IN THE BLACK: “Game” is also one of the first films to use the new Red brand camera, a fully digital cinema camera.
Steven Soderbergh is also using it, on his new film, “The Argentine.”
The camera is a huge deal to many in the film industry because of a breakthrough Red made with image capture. It turns an itty-bitty flash memory card, the kind you use for a hand-held digital camera, into a 400-foot reel of film, said Jon Sagud of Red’s marketing department.
“The ‘Crank’ boys are in our Top 10 hit list. We think very highly of them and we were interested in working with them,” Sagud said. “Mr. Soderbergh has also used our cameras. I’m not sure who will be the first to hit the marquee.”
It looks like Soderbergh may be there first because his film has been shooting, and Rubin isn’t eager to make it a race of it.
The 10-pound camera has the resolution of an IMAX camera, but with the size of a small cinema camera that can be carried around sets. But, by shooting entirely digital from the beginning — film doesn’t come cheap — it cuts down on the final cost of the film.
“Game” will shoot through January in and around Albuquerque. It’s a long shoot, but the variety of games, stunts and shots in the film requires a split schedule, Rubin said.
The film’s budget is an estimated $51 million, plus a $15 million no-interest loan from the state of New Mexico to make it happen.
SAM JACKSON HITS THE LINKS: It was Cool and The Gang when Samuel L. Jackson showed up at Santa Ana’s Wind Dancer Bar & Grill last weekend during a golf break.
“He was really nice,” said Esmerelda Bueno, one of the cooks at the restaurant on Santa Ana Pueblo, near the Santa Ana Golf Club, one of the state’s top-rated courses. “(Jackson) was playing golf, and he had a coffee and a hot dog.”
That’s odd, because it has been reported he’s a vegetarian. Maybe it was for his caddy.
Regardless, Bueno said, the dude is big. Like huge. And nice. He took time to chat with the staff and wandered through the kitchen.
Jackson, who’s in town to shoot the movie version of the graphic novels of “The Spirit” at Albuquerque Studios, is well known as a golfer. Apparently, during the filming of the latest spate of “Star Wars” films, he’d carry a model light saber in his golf bag and bust it out on the tee box, just to miff guys.
He has famously played against Tiger Woods and Arnold Palmer, and his handicap is south of five.
“To be frank,” Jackson is quoted as saying on IMDB.com , “I am as passionate about golf as I am about acting. I very seldom get angry at golf. The year I started golf I had a caddy and one day I did get angry with myself and threw a club. My caddy told me, ‘You’re not good enough to get mad.’ I have never thrown a club since.
“I enjoy my golf, it does not matter whether I play great or badly. I let it go.”
Hey, Sam, I just bought a new Cobra driver and I’m looking to get medieval on some Pro V1s …
SEND YOUR TIPS: If you want to know more about a film shooting in the state — or if you’re Sam Jackson looking for a golf game — e-mail
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Last Updated ( Friday, 02 November 2007 02:43 )
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By Dan Mayfield
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Friday, 26 October 2007 02:03 |
Sure, the film business is booming in New Mexico. Thirteen films and television shows are in production right now.
That’s huge.
But everything could change Wednesday when the two Writers Guilds of America, both West and East, decide whether to strike.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 26 October 2007 02:04 )
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By Dan Mayfield
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Friday, 19 October 2007 02:21 |
Call it Six Degrees of Cormac McCarthy. If you’re in the New Mexico film biz, it’s solid bet you are fewer than six degrees of separation from a film based on a McCarthy novel or starring Woody Harrelson or Tommy Lee Jones.
The film “No Country for Old Men” hits the trifecta. It stars both actors, and the Joel and Ethan Coen screenplay is based on … you guessed it — a novel by Pulitzer Prizewinning author McCarthy.
“No Country” will open in limited release Nov. 9, followed by a New Mexico release Nov. 16 and national release Nov. 21, said Miramax spokeswoman Nicolette Aizenberg. The film was a 2007 Cannes Film Festival official selection, so expect good things.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 19 October 2007 02:31 )
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By Dan Mayfield
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Friday, 12 October 2007 02:51 |
“Felon” has started shooting at the Old Main prison in Santa Fe — but it’s not much of a commute for the film’s star, Val Kilmer.
Kilmer lives in Santa Fe and made “Blind Horizon” in Santa Fe in 2003 with Sam Shepard.
This time around, he’ll star again with Shepard in “Felon,” the story of a man who is convicted of manslaughter after he kills a burglar who broke into his house, said Dan Keston of Tooley Productions.
The film is shooting most of its scenes in the Old Main section of the State Penitentiary, site of the 1980 riots.
“It’s not how he survives in there, it’s how he keeps his sanity,” Keston said.
The movie also is filming in the newer state prison and in and around Santa Fe.
Also in the film are Stephen Dorff (“Blade,” “World Trade Center”), Harold Perrineau (“Lost”) and more.
The film is expected to be released next year, and the producers hope it will reach the big screen in a wide release, unlike “Blind Horizon,” which has primarily been in DVD release.
GET A TATTOO NOW: Last week I wrote about the casting agent for “Game” needing a bunch of folks. Tattooed, pierced and freaky-looking folks.
Well, your big chance is from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at the New Mexico Labor Department offices at Expo New Mexico. Go in the main San Pedro gate, said casting agent Sally Allen.
For more information, call Allen at 261-8671.
She doesn’t just need tattooed people, though. The movie has a variety of “games” that are featured, including in-line skating games. All are similar to the video game “The Sims.”
WHAT IF EVERYBODY’S GAY? Shooting for “Horror in the Wind” is taking over Otero County through the end of the week.
If you don’t remember your middle school map of New Mexico, that’s the Ruidoso and Tularosa area of the state.
The film follows the premise that weevils are eating a bunch of tomatoes in this small farming town and harming its local economy. Scientists develop a spray that makes them stop reproducing, and they’re hailed as heroes in the town.
For a while, anyway.
“We start with pretty real scientific information, then stretch it for all its worth,” said Dick Weber of Revision Studios, a small film company based in High Rolls (yes, it’s in New Mexico).
Unfortunately, the stuff gets into the air and people realize why the weevils won’t reproduce: They’re gay.
Then, everybody in town is gay. Everybody in the whole country is gay. The whole world. Well, except for the gay people. They’re all straight.
The comedy plays off gay stereotypes.
So far, no release date is planned.
LAST CHANCE:
“Transformers” is heading to DVD on Tuesday. The movie was filmed at White Sands Missile Range and includes a host of local actors.
You can pick up the DVD next week and play with the pause feature to see if you recognize any of the buildings in the car chase that zooms through Albuquerque.
SEND YOUR TIPS: If you know of a film shooting in the state, or are curious about one, e-mail
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 07 November 2007 06:12 )
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By Dan Mayfield
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Friday, 05 October 2007 02:29 |
You think that because you’ve got ear expanders, a labret or Monroe and a bunch of tattoos that you can’t be in movies?
Well, if you’re tattooed and pierced up, and maybe a little freaky-looking, your ship has just come in.
Polish your expanders: The film “Game,” which stars “300’s” Gerard Butler, is getting ready to cast 2,000 more people to be in the crowd of a gigantic fight scene and a bunch more for a giant rave, said casting agent Gwyn Savage of FilmSavage.com.
The film is looking for 4,000 people, and not all of them need to be pierced and tattooed. So if you didn’t know that a labret was a lip piercing and a Monroe was a lip piercing worn above the upper lip where Marilyn Monroe had her famous mole, then you’re still in the running.
“You’ve seen the game ‘The Sims?’ We’re also looking for people who are looking to be ‘programmed’ to run in a city in a game, the 20-to-35 hip cool set,” Savage said.
She’s looking for “futuristic people,” she said, so use your imagination. Maybe you’ve got great futuristic hair? Maybe you’re that guy with a Bluetooth thing glued to your ear?
Michael Umble, the film’s publicist, said the film “is not really post-apocalyptic, but the world has that feel.”
The film is scheduled to shoot for two months, starting Nov. 5, in and around Albuquerque’s Downtown and at Albuquerque Studios. Umble said the film will likely be shooting “broad expanses” of Albuquerque, which will likely mean large-scale shooting around town.
E-mail
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for more information.
SPIRIT STARTS SOON:
“Game” may be a big deal, but “The Spirit” is a bigger one.
The film stars Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Samuel L. Jackson and Croatian hottie Stana Katic, and will start filming Monday at Albuquerque Studios.
It’s a closed set.
Like really, really closed, said Albuquerque Studios executive director Jeremy Hariton. There are special badges, fingerprint scanners, pass keys, retina scanners, DNA tests, secret passwords and double-secret passwords you need to know to get into the place. Remember the opening to the show “Get Smart?” That’s small time.
The film is expected to be one of the most technologically advanced movies made to date. Frank Miller, who wrote “300” and helped direct “Sin City,” will direct “The Spirit,” based on Will Eisner’s classic graphic novel series.
A RECORD? The end of this year is shaping up to be a busy one for film folks, with 13 projects planned or in production between now and Jan. 1, 2008. The Albuquerque Studios has four projects filming — “Game,” “The Spirit,” “Breaking Bad” and “In Plain Sight.” The rest of the state, from Las Cruces to Santa Fe, will be busy with more, including “Felon” in Santa Fe; “Horror in the Wind” in Tularosa and Alamogordo; “Coyote County Loser,” no locations specified; “A Lonely Place for Dying,” which will begin shooting on Jan. 1, no locations specified; “Hamlet II” in Albuquerque; “The Burning Plain,” which will start shooting in Las Cruces in November with Charlize Theron; “Appaloosa”; “The Warboys,” wrapping soon; and “Five Dollars a Day” with Christopher Walken.
“Swing Vote,” “To Live and Die,” “Love N’ Dancing” and “Shoot First and Pray You Live” have all wrapped production.
SEND YOUR TIPS: If you know of a film shooting in the state, or are curious about one, e-mail
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 07 November 2007 06:12 )
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