The 'Killshot' week

"Killshot" director John Madden and his film crew walked around downtown Cape Girardeau last week surveying camera angles for the filming that followed this week. Dressed in black, cell phones to their ears, they stood in the middle of the intersection of Broadway and Main Street, movie mafiosi surveying their new turf.

Cape Girardeau welcomed them warmly. Gradually, restrictions on how close spectators could get to the set were eased as the filmmakers saw that no one was going to swarm all over Diane Lane or any of the other stars just because they could. One of the co-producers said he'd forgotten how nice Midwesterners are.

The city has had a good time gazing at the stars.

In a week, "Killshot" has pumped an estimated $1 million into the local economy, according to Cape Girardeau Mayor Jay Knudtson. In addition, many Southeast students and townspeople have gotten a taste of filmmaking behind the scenes. Who knows whether a Quentin Tarantino, who was a video clerk before directing his first movie and now is one of the "Killshot" producers, was among them?