We ought to be in movies.
Actually, Las Cruces
has already been in quite a few, and now the odds of getting in more are
increasing.
On a recent warm spring day, we watched a group of desperados
shoot it our on Main Street,
a High Noon brawl staged by Old West Thunder and Flying Cloud Productions. Then
we ambled past a stagecoach, down a short red carpet and into the Rio Grande
Theatre, where we heard about the latest development in the Wild West history
of filmmaking in the territory.
New Mexico State legislators recently approved a $550,000
appropriation to build what various speakers referred to as the Las Cruces film
backlot, a resource that is expected to help draw filmmakers and creators of
commercials, videos and other multimedia productions to our territory.
Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, construction should be well
under way by the end of the year at Corralitos Ranch, west of the airport.
It’s territory already known well by top filmmakers, and those of
us who cover their location shoots. I was there during filming of Steven
Spielberg’s last Indiana Jones epic (the one with the crystal skulls, ETS and that
now-notorious marriage ceremony).
I was also in the vicinity, during a vicious sandstorm, for a
location shoot of Steven Soderbergh’s critically-acclaimed 2000 film “Traffic.”
They were looking for a “third world airport,” I was told, and
after scouting possible locations in Mexico and assorted other sites around the
world, they were disappointed to find nothing that seemed quite third-worldly
enough — until they discovered the Las Cruces International Airport.
Hmm.
Other big-time filmmakers were more complimentary.
Oscar-nominated writer and filmmaker Guillermo Arriaga likes us so
much he said he’d like to have a house here, when he came to Las Cruces to make the 2008 film “The Burning
Plain.”
He brought along the likes
of John Corbett, Kim Basinger, and superstar Charlize Theron, whose teenaged
self was portrayed by now-hotter-than-Bhut-Jolokia-chile Jennifer Lawrence
(“American Hustle,” “Hunger Games,” “Silver Linings Playbook”).
Of course, Tony Award-winning, Academy Award-nominated writer Mark
Medoff actually DOES live here, and has taken his plays to Broadway from Las
Cruces and made several movies in the Mesilla Valley and around the state,
including “Refuge,” “Homage,” “Santa Fe” and “100 MPG.”
At the Las Cruces Film Backlot Kick-Off, Medoff praised the
bipartisan efforts that are helping to increase resources to lure productions.
“We hope it brings some more movies here and helps movie people
see our area is as attractive as other parts of the state,” said Medoff, a
founder of NMSU’s Creative Media Institute.
He was among those who noted new resources could give talented
students who train here more opportunities to stay, live and work here.
We’re a natural, as they say in the biz.
Our star quality has been obvious from the beginnings of the film
industry.
Thomas Edison’s company, in fact, shot the first film in New Mexico Territory and one of the first ever in
the American West in 1898. “Indian
Day School,” according to
nmartmuseum.org, “shows a small group of Native American children and their teacher
filing out of a Pueblo-style one-room schoolhouse, and then back in again.”
Film pioneer D.W. Griffith’s “A Pueblo Legend,” was made around the time of
statehood.
My first brush with New Mexico
film fame came shortly after I moved to Santa
Fe and was assigned to cover the filming of
“Silverado.” It was old home week. The film’s still photographer was a
photojournalist I’d worked with for years in Portland, Ore., and the writer was
Larry Kasdan (whose credits include “Grand Canyon,” “Body Heat,” “Raiders of
the Lost Ark,” “The Accidental Tourist,” “The Body Guard,” “The Big Chill,” and
screenplays for “Star Wars” episodes from 1980 to the newest episode slated for
2015 release).
I remembered him as the roommate of a hometown guy I dated at the University of Michigan. We talked about old times and
mused about filmmakers’ fascination with the Land of Enchantment.
“Light photographs true here,” Kasdan said.
S. Derrickson Moore may be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com,
@derricksonmore on Twitter and Tout or 575-541-5450.
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