Moviemaking at local resort provides glitz, economic lift

The JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa literally rolled out the red carpet for Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes and his untitled comedy, which pumped an estimated $1 million-plus into the local economy during the four-day shoot.

Then, in July, the mega- budget "Transformers 2" is scheduled to shoot for a few days at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base's Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, known as the "boneyard."

"We're humming at a steady 35 miles per hour," said Tucson Film Office director Shelli Hall, who was on the Starr Pass set Wednesday.

She said the bulk of Tucson's $20 million economic impact from film and TV production still comes from commercials, industrial documentaries and smaller films, not these large films.

"The spending that goes on here is nothing to shake a stick at," Hall said. "But looking at New Mexico, looking at $200 million for the state, you're thinking, 'God, I wish I was in that race car,' but we're humming along, holding onto the business."

"It's an uphill battle," she said. "We're driving uphill."

Slated for a 2009 release, the Mendes film stars John Krasinski (TV's "The Office") and Maya Rudolph ("Saturday Night Live") as a couple traveling around the country while looking for the right spot to raise the child they're about to have.

The movie took over various parts of the resort, including the entire lobby, Wednesday. Starr Pass will stand in for a resort in Phoenix.

The studio selected the JW Marriott after surveying every resort in Phoenix and Tucson, said unit publicist Rob Harris.

Filming at the resort culminated Wednesday night and moved on to undisclosed locations in Phoenix, where the shoot will continue a few days.

Hall estimated the shoot bestowed an economic impact of more than $1 million on Tucson. She arrived at the number from the $100,000 per day the production spent while in town and said it's a conservative estimate that the total $400,000 would at least double in secondary and incidental spending throughout the shoot.

Harris estimated that the film employed more than 100 local extras and crew members.

On Wednesday, some of the extras milled about in the lobby as Krasinski and Rudolph shared a scene at a table on a patio. For more than an hour Krasinski redid the scene, which ened with him walking away from the table to take a cell-phone call.

Security was so tight that several times during the scene, film staffers and security shooed a reporter and a photographer away from a balcony overlooking the shoot. Passers-by snuck in to take quick shots on their camera phones and scamper away before they were noticed.

Harris protected the site like an Area 51 military guard, refusing to let reporters speak to the stars or the director.

He even denied requests to speak to local crew members or extras, but he couldn't be everywhere at once. Extras milling around in a room the actors referred to as the "cattle call" were easy pickings — bored and willing to talk to anybody.

"As far as I see it, I'm a free agent," said extra Lily Santoro, an actress who has an agent and is a member of the Screen Actors Guild. "They can tell me where to stand, where to sit, when to breathe when I'm on set, but not when I'm off."

Santoro spent much of the day sitting in a holding room with other extras, waiting to be called to stand in the background at a bar scene later that day. She endearingly likened the experience to a "circus atmosphere" and extolled the collaborative process.

Santoro, who pegged her age as "the dark side of 30," said she took the job not for the measly $75 per day, but for the opportunity to work with Mendes, who won the Best Director Oscar for 1999's "American Beauty."

At an adjacent table in the holding room, extra Heather Carlson, 33, chatted with colleague Jay Peterson, 56, and said she wished she'd brought a book. Santoro tossed her a copy of David Sedaris' "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim."

Near the set, driver Mack Matlock, a 63-year-old retired Pima County sheriff's deputy, took a rest while he waited to be called to haul equipment to the next location.

Matlock, who now lives in Sonoita, has worked on "Tin Cup," "Young Riders" and "Tombstone."

He said he made $27.60 an hour, which jumped to time-and-a-half after the first eight hours, and double time after 14 hours.

"It's good-paying work," Matlock said. "There's a lot of downtime, but when you're working, you work really hard."

Matlock said he hopes to see more films like this shoot in Tucson.

On StarNet: For a look at the summer blockbusters and reviews on the latest movies, visit Philm Guy at go.azstarnet.com/philmguy.