Lighting! Camera! Plot!
Our neighboring town to the west has been quite a hotbed for Hollywood films in recent weeks, as two of Tinseltown’s biggest movie stars have made new films in and around Las Cruces.
Yippee Ki Yay, Las Cruces
Bruce Willis, and most recently Mel Gibson, have been spotted filming scenes for their new action films, and the residents of Las Cruces suck it all up.
An armed Willis was seen and photographed in the Bank of the West parking lot in downtown Las Cruces last week while filming a scene for a shoot-em-up film called Knight.
According to a press release from the New Mexico Film Office, Knight is “the story of a seasoned police officer who thwarted a robbery and must save his daughter in the process.”
Doesn’t sound like anything he’s ever done before. Joking; just all. But I’m still a sucker for a good Bruce Foils-a-Robber movie.
Deadly Gibson
On Monday (November 11th) the production of a new Mel Gibson film began in the parking lot of Electronic Caregiver am Main, south of downtown Cruces. According to a report from Deadline, “Gibson is back in hero mode” for this one entitled Hot Seat.
The plot is described by Deadline as follows:
An ex-hacker is forced to break into senior banking institutions by an anonymous man who has placed a bomb under his chair in his office. Gibson plays the man who must try to break into the booby-trapped building to get the young man off the hot seat.
Fleeting meetings with fame
As you would expect from movie stars of this magnitude, Las Cruces residents are super excited and social media is full of posts about their fleeting encounters with fame. many share photos, video clips, and details of their interactions with the actors.
Mike Reitzell was allowed to take a selfie with Willis. Reitzell tells me that he had breakfast in Rosie’s Café next to the location of the cast and crew and that curiosity overwhelmed him.
“I finished breakfast and went to [the shoot location]. I saw Bruce Willis walk past me several times and thought to myself, what the heck. I said ‘Hi Bruce’ and he walked up to me and asked if I could take a picture and he said yes. “
Abriel Leal was surprised to see Gibson. “I saw him the other day and all I could do was gasp from the shock of seeing a celebrity. I was so starlit that I felt like a fool, ”Leal shared on Las Cruces Sun News Facebook.
Some Las Crucens even made the experience a payday to find work as extras. “On set to shoot with another great actor. But now it’s a different film, ”wrote Alex Orrantia on his page. “Yeah folks, I work with Riggs. From a deadly weapon! “
And how about Tina Gomez, the cook of Abraham’s Café in the building where Mels film is shot, she got to ride the elevator with Gibson.
Kevin Dillon (Matt’s brother) and Sam Asghari (Britney Spears’ husband) play in Hot Seat and are also expected to play in Las Cruces.
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