'Killshot' crew, stars to film in Cape

Cast members and filming crews will shoot for 3 days in December or January.

Break out the shades and sunscreen -- Hollywood is coming to visit.

Producers of the movie "Killshot" confirmed Tuesday that filmmakers and big-name movie stars like Diane Lane will spend at least three days filming in Cape Girardeau later this year or early 2006.

"How could we not?" David Webb, the film's co-producer, said from production offices in Toronto. "Cape Girardeau is of huge atmospheric importance to the film."

In July, a crew of Hollywood directors and producers took a five-hour tour of Cape Girardeau to scout potential filming locations for the movie version of "Killshot," the 1989 Elmore Leonard novel that is partially set in Cape Girardeau.

Apparently, they walked away impressed.

"We loved the whole Mississippi River aspect of it. You can't exactly recreate that," said Webb, who has also worked on films like "Dark Water," "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" and "Taking Lives."

The filming will take three days in late December or early January, said Jerry Jones, executive director of the Missouri Film Commission. Filming starts in Toronto on Oct. 11, he said, and the last scenes to be shot for the movie will be in Cape Girardeau.

The film is to be directed by John Madden, whose film "Shakespeare in Love" won an Academy Award. The film is slated for release in late 2006 and is scheduled to star Lane, Mickey Rourke and Justin Timberlake in the story of a married couple who find themselves in Cape Girardeau while on the lam from a pair of hitmen.

Initial reports had Viggo Mortensen set to star as the male lead, but Jones said they are still looking to cast that role. One name being bandied about is Kurt Russell.

Jones said they were looking at shooting in the downtown area and along the Mississippi River. The novel's lead male character holds a job at Missouri Dry Dock, though its owners have yet to be contacted about shooting there.

While three days may not sound like a lot to some, Jones said that it's significant to have the big stars and directors in town as opposed to a secondary film crew in town to shoot only exterior shots.

"You'd always like to get more," Jones said. "But I knew going in that the bulk of the movie was going to be shot in Toronto."

Madden and the two leads, including Lane and the undetermined male lead, will be here for sure and as many as 100 other crew members, Jones said.

While actual filming will take only three days, Jones said he suspects post-production crew members will begin arriving within the next month, possibly setting up an office in the hotel where they are staying.

He estimated that the minimum economic impact will be $100,000 for each day of filming, including the cost of hotel rooms, food, rental vehicles and whatever else the filmmakers decide to do to make the film more authentic.

"If they want snow, they'll have to make that happen," he said. "They put out food every day. That's probably $5,000 a day for that alone. This stuff adds up."

That doesn't even factor in the residual effects of having a movie shot here. He said people will travel here from outside the area to watch the filming. Jones said it's likely that locals will be used as extras. Then, after the movie comes out, it will generate interest in the area again.

"You can't buy this kind of publicity, even if you could afford it," he said.

Chuck Martin, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau, said he realizes that many people probably think that Cape Girardeau would be the setting for the entire movie. But he said that the couple only spend a week in Cape Girardeau in the book.

Martin said that the majority of the film is set in Detroit and the Michigan Film Commission aggressively went after the film. But the filmmakers opted to shoot all of the scenes in Toronto, where production costs are cheaper, except for what it shoots in Cape Girardeau.

The CVB is getting bids from area hotels for the filmmakers, crew and stars to stay, Martin said. They also are working out other logistics, he said.

Plus, he said, getting a movie to be filmed in Cape Girardeau is more than about the finances -- it is also exciting.

"People are going to get the opportunity to come down and see how a major motion picture is filmed," he said. "I have no idea what opportunities there will be, but I'm sure there will be opportunities for the community to be involved. It should be a lot of fun."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137