'Killshot' filming postponed to early January

~ Producers expect to be in Cape Jan. 9 to Jan. 12.

The filming of "Killshot" won't interrupt business in downtown Cape Girardeau right before Christmas after all.

Producers have pushed the date of local filming, originally slated for Dec. 19 to 23, back to Jan. 9 to 12.

Tim Arbeiter, executive director of Old Town Cape, said the shift in plans will have a two-fold benefit for downtown businesses. Now filming won't interrupt the all-important Christmas shopping season. But the later date will also likely bring onlookers downtown who might spend money during a normally slow month.

"Now it's going to be an even brighter January," Arbeiter said.

The film, based on an Elmore Leonard novel, is partially based in Cape Girardeau. About 100 local extras will be needed along with a unnamed number of production assistants.

Actors Thomas Jane, Diane Lane and Johnny Knoxville will be in Cape Girardeau for local filming, which will take place primarily at the Missouri Dry Dock on Aquamsi Street and downtown. Producers said they hope to minimize interruption of downtown traffic, holding traffic only while filming.

Kent Zickfield of Zickfield Jewelers is glad the dates have been pushed back beyond the Christmas shopping season but said the possible interruption in Christmas traffic wasn't ever a huge concern for him.

"There's a lot of other things on peoples' minds ... other than that movie right now," Zickfield said of merchants in the busy shopping season.

Businesses downtown and elsewhere expect more benefits than hassles out of Hollywood. Filming is expected to bring in up to $100,000 a day for the local economy.

Chuck Martin, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau, said part of that money will be spent filling up hotel beds in a season that's usually slow for the lodging industry.

Prudence Emery, the film's Toronto-based publicist, said the last-minute change of plans is typical with Hollywood.

"Movie schedules change all the time," she said. "It's normal."

Emery said no extras have been contacted yet about parts in the movie, but notification should begin after Jan. 1.

Pat Bond, chairman of the Cape Filmmakers Cooperative, said the members of his organization haven't yet heard about coveted production assistant jobs either. Being a student of film and the process behind it's creation, Bond knows schedules can change.

"I had a feeling it was going to happen like that," Bond said.

Staff reporter Scott Moyers contributed to this report.

msanders@semissourian.com

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