The “fifth and final” phenomenon strikes New Mexico twice this year as Albuquerque is in the midst of taking its final turn as backdrop and host for USA Network’s hit series In Plain Sight.
Albuquerque Mayor Richard J. Berry touts the production saying, “The cast and crew have been instrumental in showcasing our city’s natural beauty, and creating jobs by staffing 90% of their crew with New Mexico residents.”
Mary Mac & Co. have called NM their IPS home since 2007.
The final season is currently on location in downtown Albuquerque (as spotted here) and surrounding areas, polishing off the series at their longtime homebase, I-25 Studios.
Season five premiers on March 16 and concludes in May.
So as New Mexico preps to bid a sad, but fond farewell to the production, as in the case of its sister series Breaking Bad, this is last call!
As announced by the New Mexico Film Office last week, a film version of the story behind the Navy Seal mission that ultimately killed Osama Bin Laden is now filming outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The film is titled after the mission itself, Code Name: Geronimo.
Cam Gigandet who recently starred in the NM production of the TNT pilot Tin Star leads the cast which also features Kathleen Robertson, William Fichtner, Robert Knepper, Kenneth Miller, Anson Mount, Freddy Rodriguez, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Xzibit.
Directed by John Stockwell, written by Kendall Lampkin, Code Name: Geronimo “tells the story of the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden and serves as the riveting backdrop for a gripping story about the combined efforts of an extraordinary group of Navy Seals. This is the story of a clandestine operation, a perfect storm of people, and the rare synergy of circumstances that would amount to the most daring military operation of our generation, inspired by the true story of how it almost fell apart.”
New Mexico’s Own Tony Mark, producer of the Oscar winning war film, The Hurt Locker is producing with Nicolas Chartier and Zev Foreman.
Production is expected to wrap by the end of the month with a projected 2012 release.
The Santa Fe New Mexican has released this image of a Bin Laden compound replica built at the New Mexico State Penitentiary for the film:
WARNING: I will be crying while writing the following post (but, I will continue for love of the show & y’all).
Confirming our previous reports of the fifth and final season of BREAKING BAD getting set for a March shoot, the following casting information has just been released:
WHITE TURTLE CASTING
IS AGAIN SEEKING DIVERSE BACKGROUND/EXTRAS
AND A NEW BABY HOLLY
FOR THIS FIFTH & FINAL SEASON OF BREAKING BAD
A clear picture of yourself (No bathroom mirror photos please).
Your height, weight, current phone number and what car(s) you have access to; make, model, year and color.
SUBMIT BABIES TO PLAY HOLLY:
If you have a baby girl 6 to 7 months old, blonde and blue eyed, email extras@whiteturtlecasting.com. Title the Subject of your email, “Baby Holly”. Please include a contact name and phone number.
Again, this pretty much sums up how I feel about NM’s Own beloved Br Ba coming to an end.
Filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2010, Warrior Woman premiered to its hometown crowed – cast, crew and guests last summer at the historic KiMo Theatre.
Warrior Women will be part of an impressive line-up at this year’s Cinequest Film Festival.
The griping drama, follows cancer survivor “Alice” through her very real life journey of treatment, recovery and beyond into the surreal world of her dreams as they begin to cross over to, and form her new reality and consciousness.
Warrior Women will be showing March 3, 4 and 6 at Cinequest, a “leading edge organization that, for over twenty years, has successfully integrated creativity and technological innovation to empower, transform, and improve the lives of people and communities.”
It is being widely reported that Diane Kruger, star of the wholly New Mexico Film, Inhale and Tarantino’s accliamed Inglorious Basterds is in talks to play “The Seeker” in the upcoming NM shoot of The Host.
As we told you here The Host is the latest best selling novel turned film from Twilight author Stephenie Meyer.
As recently as late last month Kruger herself is quoted by wwd.com as stating, “I play The Seeker. It’s a love triangle, of course, but it’s about aliens coming into human bodies and taking over. Earth has been occupied by all these aliens, and The Seeker is trying to find the last humans.”
The name of young Chandler Canterbury is also being batted about to join the cast in the role of Jaimie Stryder, while Boyd Holbrook is set to play Kyle O’Shea. If reports hold true these three will join Max Irons as Jared Howe, Saoirse Ronan as Melanie Stryder, William Hurt as Jeb Stryder and Jake Abel as Ian O’Shea.
Shooting begins this month between Louisiana and New Mexico. The Host is expected to premiere in the spring 2013.
Local extras/background casting details to follow…
Premiered February 1st 2012 in Santa Fe, NM to a packed house of industry insiders and advocates, MADE IN NEW MEXICO is “an inside look at the film and media-making industry in New Mexico – from its history to its future – and how progressive tax incentives fueled a boom in production stirring up political controversy over the industry’s true value to the state in difficult financial times.”
STATEWIDE SCREENING SCHEDULE TO DATE
WED FEB 8 7:00 PM – LAS CRUCES
RIO GRANDE THEATRE
211 N. Downtown Mall www.riograndetheatre.com
Sponsor: Film Las Cruces
THU FEB 9 7:00 PM – ALBUQUERQUE
KIMO THEATRE
423 Central Ave NW www.cabq.gov/kimo
WITH SHORT FILMS BY NM FILMMAKERS
Sponsors: NM Women in Film, Friends of FilmVideoArt, NMedia, Albuquerque Studios, GMAC, Inc.
While gaggles (including yours truly) gathered at the state capitol today, to lobby to keep New Mexico film incentives not only enticing but alive, the rest of the world waits with bated breath to see the next development from the NM hosted production of Disney’s, The Lone Ranger.
Variety has pointedly eluded to a Lone Ranger production meeting going down in the Land of Enchantment, scheduled to include the film’s stars Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer, this week!
This morning NM’s own Skyranger gets an aerial look at a prospective set.
LIVE from NM Film & Media Day 2012 here at the Roundhouse where SB0168 goes to the floor today at 2 p.m.
If you feel passionately about what New Mexico Film lends to our great state, please visit YOUR Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee here, and contact your committee members to ask them to support SB0168, to REPEAL FILM PRODUCTION TAX CREDIT CAP.
UPDATE 2/1/2012: From Sarah Dowling Casting, “We will also be collecting submissions by email, and are available by phone to answer any questions about our casting process. We will be holding on-camera interviews with selected applicants who we feel may be a good fit for this project.”
Interested parties may call the Sarah Dowling Casting Information Line at (512) 373-3269 or email SarahDowlingCasting@gmail.com.
Austin based Casting Director Sarah Dowling is holding an OPEN CASTING CALL for a major motion picture in ALBUQUERQUE, NM Thursday February 2.
Where: The Nativo Lodge / Nativo Ballroom
6000 Pan American Fwy
Albuquerque, NM 87109
When:
8:30AM – 1:30PM and 4:30PM – 7:30PM
What:
Casting Principal (but non-speaking) roles
Specific Types:
Men (ages 18 – 60) – African, African American, Native American, or Latino
Women (ages 18 – 40)- African, African American, Native American or Latino
Children (ages 6– 10)- African, African American, Native American, or Latino
For the purposes of the story, casting is predominantly seeking people of African, African American, Native American, Latino or Asian descent especially of LEAN to MEDIUM MUSCULAR BUILDS who have been trained in athletics, dance, or who have had other movement training.
Women should have similar athletic builds but should still embody the softness/grace of a woman. Would like to see women who have also had movement training in any of the above.
Children should be soulful and comfortable in their bodies.
In addition:
For one role, are especially looking for long-jumpers or decathletes.
We are also looking for an African American mime.
Applicable candidates will be briefly interviewed by casting staff and may be asked to speak on camera.
Everywhere from ARNOLD NATION to AUSTRIA is abuzz about Schwarzenegger getting back in front of the camera for his next film following the recently wrapped NM shoot of The Last Stand.
Best of all, made out in translation is the word that the action/sci-fi/fantasy pic will land Arnold back in Valencia County, New Mexico as soon as this spring!
TheArnoldFans.com sought out the deets that the former TERMINATOR is slated to play a more “angelic” than robotic immortal instrument of death in the upcoming flick.
According to Deadline:
Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to star in Black Sands, an action film that will be directed by Scott Waugh and Mike McCoy. Financed by Bill Block’s QED, the film will begin production April 1, 2012. In the script that Skip Woods has rewritten, Schwarzenegger will play a loner who wages war against a ruthless weapons manufacturer and his private army in the Southwest. The tone is Man On Fire meets High Plains Drifter.
Multiple outlets are also reporting that Schwarzenegger’s third return to the screen will be an action/thriller co-starring Sly Stallone.
Rest assured state treasure, Steven Michael Quezada is safe and sound and not in need of emergency rescue from the streets of Madrid. OHI and likely hundreds of Quezada’s associates received the following email message from the actor’s email address this a.m.:
from Stevenmichael quezada
date Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 1:09 AM
subject Holiday Trip!!!
mailed-by yahoo.com
signed-by yahoo.com
hide details 1:09 AM (6 hours ago)
Just hoping this email reaches you…Well,i’m sorry for this emergency and for not informing you about my urgent trip to Madrid,Spain but I just have to let you know my present predicament. Everything was fine until I was attacked on my way back to the hotel, I wasn’t hurt but I lost my money, bank cards, mobile phone and my bag in the course of this attack….I immediately contacted my bank in order to block my cards and also made a report at the nearest police station. I’ve been to the embassy and they are helping me with my documentation so i can fly out but I’m urgently in need of some help from you to pay up my hotel bills and my flight ticket back home…My return flight back home is scheduled to leave in few hours from now…Now am freaked out….Please i need your help..
Hope to read from you soon.
Thanks and Regards.
Steven Michael Quezada
Actor/Comedian/Writer/Producer/Director
A quick check of the most trusted site for news and information on the web, Facebook (second only to Wikipedia), verifies that the overtly suspicious email was a fake, as confirmed by Quezada who wrote, “I am not in Spain and everything fine.”
Say it ain’t so JoeJim James! In the name of dashed sports dreams everywhere, the good sportsmanship of Albuquerque’s favorite band is being put to the test.
Last month, beloved Albuquerque band The James Douglas Show was asked to perform at Jim McMahon’s Swang N’ Super Bowl Charity Bash 2012 on February 2nd in Indianapolis, the home of the Super Bowl. This high-profile celebrity event is a charity concert benefiting The Lynda McMahon Ferguson Literacy Foundation and Hope for the Warriors.
The JDS is honored to be invited. Check them out here on the list of headliners…
HOWEVER last week, their travel sponsor backed out – now band, bus and gear are all sidelined and they need our help!
A word from The Jame Douglas Show:
“…we do not have the funds necessary to make it to this show…and it is a BIG show. Most of the other performers on this bill have support from record labels to pay their expenses…that is not the case for The JDS. Most (if not ALL) of our travel expenses have come out of our own pocket from performances we do. However, traveling to and from Indianapolis would cost FAR more than what this organization can afford on its own…especially since we just returned from a two-week run of Nevada and California [dates].”
ALBUQUERQUE, NM – YOUR 6 Time Grammy Nominees, The James Douglas Show who have stepped up to the plate so many times right here in NM, performing countless free shows, donating their time to charity, playing backup for anyone who asks, always willing to lend their help to anyone in the business, who constantly hit the road and the airwaves making a good name for New Mexico all over the country will be performing LIVE TOMORROW night!!!
The James Douglas “Road to the Super Bowl Fund Raising” Show
Hooligans Nightclub 9800 Montgomery NE
SE CORNER EUBANK AND MONTGOMERY
7:00 p.m. – 12:30 a.m.
Just $10
Come out and have a good time with us, and with your helpful generosity, we just might be able to make this happen.
If you can’t make it to this show, but would still like to donate to the trip, contact The James Douglas Show’s management at THEARKITEKS@aol.com.
UPDATE 1/30/12: CONGRATULATIONS to ardent NM Film supporters Linda & Stu – the winners of our passes to this week’s Legislative Reception! See you Wednesday!
The evening following this year’s New Mexico Film & Media Day at the State Capitol, IATSE Local 480 and Santa Fe Studios will be hosting a special LEGISLATIVE RECEPTION.
Legislators and industry insiders will be on hand for this exclusive meet, mix and mingle event (21+).
Wednesday, February 1
5:30pm – 8:30pm The Pink Adobe
406 Old Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe, NM 87501
Tickets will be $50 at the door. Free to legislators.
OneHeadlightInk.com will have two passes to the event on hand, day of, to give to one of our readers.
If you are a New Mexico Film advocate planning to attend this year’s Film & Media Day in Santa Fe, drop us a note at sindication@oneheadlightink.com telling us why you are passionate about New Mexico Film.
(Must be 21+ to enter/attend, name and ID required to redeem)
One entry will be chosen and notified after 5 p.m. on Monday January 30 to pick-up their passes from us at our table in the Roundhouse at the conclusion of the day’s event (4 p.m.) February 1, 2012.
ALSO: Get your gear AND support the cause here now!
Miamiverse.com has published the above “Open Letter” from best selling author Alisa Valdes to fellow New Mexico Native, Demi Moore.
About Valdes:
The Albuquerque born, Del Norte High School graduate is a former staff writer for the Boston Globe and the LA Times. She has written seven novels including the New York Times best seller The Dirty Girls Social Club.
This summer HarperCollins will publish Temptation, the first installment of the author’s forthcoming teen crossover supernatural romance trilogy, Kindred.
Predictably sour on film, Governor Susana Martinez tells lawmakers at this year’s legislative session that it would be “a waste of time,” to pass a bill along to her proposing lifting the $50M cap on New Mexico Film Incentives, which she worked to impose during the last session.
Martinez says, “I want predictability for the film industry and they have received predictability and I think they really appreciate the fact that there is predictability. It allows us to formulate a budget and balance the budget.”
In the last year alone this now “predictable” stance has led untold numbers of productions, including the likes of Iron Man III – starring Robert Downey Jr., Oblivion – starring Tom Cruise, Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained and television series The Lying Game to quit New Mexico for more “receptive” states.
While Alasaka and Colorado shoot to redouble their efforts in bolstering their existing incentive programs, states like North Carolina, New Orleans and Texas nab big budget films, local jobs and the media attention that follows them away from New Mexico.
Perhaps bringing to fruition what was forewarned back in November 2011, when representatives of the Governor’s cabinet appeared at an industry event, tasked with proclaiming the Governor’s support for New Mexico Film. At the NMedia State of Film event the Governor’s Cheif of Staff Keith Garnder stated in his address to the crowed that the Governor, “vows to wield a veto pen” on any proposed changes to the current Film Program.
Representative Al Park (D) of Albuquerque disagrees with Martinez’ decision.
“We don’t have a cap on a single incentive in any other industry. We plant incentives all across the board for things all across New Mexico…this is an industry that we know right now is generating a billion dollars in economic activity,”
- Rep. Al Park to KOB-TV
While New Mexico sends millions of dollars out of state to improve create our image around the world, and this ongoing targeting of the Film Industry is racking up losses in jobs and notoriety for the state, neighboring states stand at the ready to take over.
Right next door Texas is wrangling for the top spot in video game production by extending credits akin to their film tax incentives. After handily procuring the production away from New Mexico, North Carolina rides away with thousands of paid extras casting, crew jobs and the influx of income that the blockbuster Iron Man III will bring to their state.
Given the current administration’s stance on film, and the losses that follow, being the resonating image New Mexico puts forth as a still high profile option for production, industry activists and advocates are set to convene at the Roundhouse to lobby state legislators on February 1st for New Mexico Film & Media Day 2012.
IATSE Local 480 to host a special screening of “Made in New Mexico” for Film & Media Day
As part of the Film & Media Day celebration IATSE Local 480 is hosting a special screening “Made In New Mexico” at the CCA Cinematheque (1050 Old Pecos Trail).
The screening will be at 4pm on Film & Media Day, February 1, 2012.
This is the first screening of this film – don’t miss it. Open to the public at no charge but a suggested donation of $10
Made in New Mexico is an hour-long documentary about the film and media industry in our state. First-hand accounts from producers, directors, technicians, educators and industry leaders combine with behind-the-scenes footage and stunning landscapes to both educate and celebrate the benefits of a healthy film and media industry. The film is produced and directed by local filmmakers Brent Morris and David Jean Schweitzer.
UPDATE 2/2/2012: Basically the hotness that is Armie Hammer tells TMZ, “Don’t Mess With Texas!” Moreover the Lone Ranger star says he’ll fully dish on the baked goods debacle that landed him under arrest near the Mexican border last November when his 90 day gag won’t threaten his legal defenses…Ride ‘em cowboy.
Lone Ranger star, Armie Hammer is due to saddle-up alongside Johnny Depp‘s Tonto within the next few weeks here in New Mexico.
Come to find out this past November The Social Network breakout spent approximately one full day in a Texas jail before posting his $1,000 bail, after a “crack” K-9 detective sniffed out the presence of marijuana in his vehicle.
According to the AP, arrest records show that Hammer had 0.02 ounces of marijuana, three medicinal marijuana cookies and one brownie when arrested Nov. 20 in Sierra Blanca, a few miles from the Mexican border (approx. 100 mi. from NM).
It is also being reported that El Paso’s district attorney will not prosecute because a felony requires more than 4 ounces of actual marijuana.
The county attorney could pursue lesser charges, since the case is going back to the local sheriff, but Hammer’s lawyer Kent Schaffer says no charges have been presented.
Hammer joins Willie Nelson and Snoop Dogg in being busted on pot charges in the same Texas town.
Just sighted, one Jerry Bruckheimer at Albuquerque Studios!
The Pirates of the Caribbean über producer is undoubtedly in town to prep for his upcoming Lone Ranger shoot.
The Disney production is scheduled to film in northern New Mexico, Albuquerque and Santa Fe from February through August.
This sighting is on the heels of multiple reports and what seemed to turn out to be a photo hoax placing Lone Ranger star Johnny Depp in Gallup earlier in the month.
Despite the possible photo issue, multiple OHI readers and social network connections say that the star cast as Tonto in the film HAS been between Utah and NM “researching” his role as of late.
And now as of this a.m. a reported caravan arrived at the studio today with a visible, “bearded” Bruckheimer in tow.
Since I’m a little girl (that’s the east coast way to say it, so spare me your side eye), I always thought it would be “wicked cool” to have the gear of the losing team!
Back in those ancient days known as the nineteen-eighties, instantly erroneous merchandise made for the underscoring team was typically and promptly incinerated following a championship game.
Thankfully times have changed and so may all our minds rest just a little easier knowing that that substantial waste is no longer the standard.
To quote Steve Henson:
Somewhere in sweltering Zambia, a man wears a shirt that says the Chicago Bears won Super Bowl XLI. Somebody is trudging through a Nicaraguan rain forest wearing a cap that says the Vancouver Canucks won the 2011 Stanley Cup.
And soon somebody in Haiti or Armenia or Indonesia or Botswana will slip on a shirt or cap that declares the San Francisco 49rs the 2011 NFC Champs!
Now on to the BIG GAME, where you can bet some choice gear for both the New England Patriots and the New York Giants will be on hand; one stack bound for a haze of testosterone fueled, adrenaline pumped champagne showers and the other packed-up for shipment to humanitarian organizations to hand out in developing nations.
