More than 1,000 apply to be extra for 'Killshot'

~ The casting director is narrowing that number down to 150 or fewer.

Apparently a lot of people want the flash of fame that could come from being an extra.

More than 1,000 would-be area actors have turned in applications to be an extra in the movie "Killshot," which will be filmed for a week in Cape Girardeau late next month.

Casting director Joni Tackette said she is in the process of whittling those 1,000 or so applications down to 100 to 150. The last day she is accepting applications is Wednesday, she said, and she will begin making calls on Thursday.

"A thousand or so is about what I'd expect," she said last week from her St. Louis-based office. "I'm sure I'll have enough to choose from."

The major studio film, currently in production in and around Toronto, will be directed by John Madden ("Shakespeare in Love"). Diane Lane and Thomas Jane will star as the female and male leads.

Production is set to take place in Cape Girardeau Dec. 19 to 23 and will require about 100 local extras and an unknown number of production assistants.

Sifting through all of the applications is the hardest part of her job, Tackette said.

"We got a lot of good ones," she said. "It was a great response. I'll just have to start going through the files and looking for people that have good availability. I'm also looking for good faces, the types that will represent the people who live in Cape Girardeau."

Tackette said extras likely will work one 12-hour day. For eight hours of work, they will be paid $55 and overtime for hours after that. They will also be provided lunch, she said.

She said she will start making calls to those she selects Thursday and people could hear from her until about Dec. 16.

Applications are available at the Cape Girardeau Public Library, the Convention and Visitors Bureau and through the Missouri Film Commission's Web site at www.mofilm.com.

More than 800 people picked up applications at the library and more than 600 have been picked up at the CVB, according to CVB director Chuck Martin.

"Initially, we had a crazy rush," Martin said. "It's slowed down some since."

Martin said he knows that several people have been contacted in the area for permission to film near, or in, their businesses. He did not know if agreements had been reached in any of those cases, he said.

The filmmakers, he said, "have been very tight-lipped and understandably so," he said. "They don't want the general public to even know where they're setting up their headquarters."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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