A Little More Malkovich
Speaking of Opus, did you know it was filmed in New Mexico? Though filmmaker and former GQ editor Mark Anthony Green’s new movie purports to take place in Utah, it’s clearly New Mexico (and we’re talkin’ Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Pojoaque), and you know what that means—work for New Mexico folk both in front of and behind the camera. Green’s fame-is-weird romp reportedly employed roughly 700 New Mexicans, which is pretty dang good for a debut feature. Neat!
Ehren, Go Brah!
Perhaps you noticed actor/artist/filmmaker/musician/composer Ehren Kee Natay (Kewa Pueblo and Diné) in that recent episode of the AMC Zahn McClarnon-led/Tony Hillerman-based cop drama Dark Winds? We haven’t seen the season three episode titled “Náá’tsoh (Big Eyes)” in full yet, but from the clip we saw with Natay and Kiowa
Gordon (who plays the cop Jim Chee), he appears to be a mechanic named Winford and it straight up made us feel that Santa Fe pride like woah. Just saying. Actually, we’re also just saying we’ve long been fans of Natay’s work, so everyone else should get on board.
In the Wind
Word on the street is that the new Max (which you might have previously known as HBO) series Duster is slated for a May 15 release, and that’s pretty good news for New Mexico film folk. Why? Welllll, according to a Facebook post from the New Mexico Film Office, the production for Duster meant hiring more than 4,000 New Mexicans, and that is a huge number. In short, the show follows a getaway driver in the Southwest in the 1970s. Did we mention that Star Wars ruiner JJ Abrams has produced, written for and directed for the show? Sorry about the Star Wars dig, Jayj, it’s just that we think it’s weird you made those people kiss in the last one. Anyway, this should not reflect on creator LaToya Morgan, a writer and producer known for Shameless and Into the Badlands.
More Like Old Guns
We don’t care if Emilio Estevez reportedly made the “old guns” joke about Young Guns 3: Dead or Alive filming in New Mexico while attending the recent Film & Media Day at the Roundhouse—it’s the law that you make that joke. That’s right, folks, Estevez and whoever is still alive/able from the original Young Guns films are slated to bring production right here, where cowboy movies always seem to come. No word on plot details yet, but there will likely be guns and horses and, probably, a train. Estevez is set to reprise his role as Willam Bonney (aka Billy the Kid), and Lou Diamond Phillips is back, too, as is Christian “Why Does He Talk Like Jack Nicholson?” Slater.
