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HOLLYWOOD FILMMAKER IN LAS CRUCES

Hollywood filmmaker sets the scene in Las Cruces

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“We love Las Cruces,” a long-time Hollywood producer and director said in late October as he worked on the set of “Death in Texas” at Film Las Cruces Studios.

“It’s a great place to be,” said Tony Adler, who was first assistant director of the Oscar-winning “American Beauty” in 1999 and the 2011 feature film “In Time. “I hope to come back here and do more movies here,” he said.

Directed by Scott Windhauser, “Death in Texas” stars Ronnie Blevins, Bruce Dern, Laura Flynn Boyle and Stephan Lang. All have been filming in Las Cruces.

Film Las Cruces Board President Jeff Steinborn and Film Liaison Jon Foley recently opened the studios’ doors to elected officials, local candidates and the media as filming took place inside the 74,000-square-foot Film Las Cruces studio at 2100 S. Valley Drive.

Film Las Cruces is a nonprofit that receives $95,000 annually from the City of Las Cruces and $70,000 from Doña Ana County to bring film and television production to Las Cruces.

Film production generates about $525 million a year in New Mexico, mostly in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. “We’re getting into the game,” Steinborn said of Las Cruces. “We want to grow a union crew base here.”

Part of what drew the movie to Las Cruces is the state’s film tax credit, including a new 5 percent credit for productions that work in Las Cruces and other parts of the state at least 60 miles outside of Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Adler said Las Cruces has particularly impressed him because of “everybody’s attitude down here. We’ve run into really cooperative people who are willing to go the extra mile.”

Las Cruces would benefit from a more experienced crew base – “qualified people who know how to help make a movie,” Adler said. “If you don’t have the people, that becomes an issue.”

About 25-30 film students currently being trained by the Creative Media Technology (CMT) program at Doña Ana Community College and New Mexico State University’s Creative Media Institute are working on the crew of “Death in Texas.”

Crew member and CMT student Ian Mattingly is a DACC junior building his film production resume by helping with paperwork, fetching coffee and keeping equipment running – doing “anything that’s asked of me,” he said. Mattingly said he is learning a lot from the experience, getting on lists for future productions, “making connections and keeping them.”

Contact Film Las Cruces at 575-805-3456 (FILM) and info@filmlascruces.com. Visit www.filmlascruces.com.

Hollywood, Filmmaker, Film, Las Cruces, Studios, Death in Texas, Tony, Adler

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