Monday, May 02, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

SHOOTING STARS: 'Lucky You' prepares to exit; 'Buckaroo' enters picture

Every gambler worth his chips knows when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.

And for Huck Cheever, the resident poker ace of "Lucky You," it's almost time to fold 'em. The Warner Bros. poker drama, which began its Las Vegas shoot March 28, is scheduled to pull up stakes Thursday -- but not before packing a lot of action into its final abbreviated week on location.

Today's primary shooting site is expected to be a Summerlin condominium complex. Later in the week, the action shifts to Dino's Bar and back to Tiffany's Cafe inside White Cross Drugs.

Other possible returns for the "Lucky You" crew include Bear's Best Golf Club in Summerlin and the Jockey Club on the Strip.

Eric Bana (as poker pro Cheever) and Drew Barrymore (as struggling singer Billie Offer) star for director Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential"), along with Robert Duvall, Debra Messing and Robert Downey Jr.

After Las Vegas location work concludes, "Lucky You" heads back to Hollywood for another few months of shooting; the movie is expected to hit screens in the United States in mid-December.

As one feature winds down, however, another gears up.

"Buckaroo," a contemporary Western co-produced and directed by local James A. Brooks, begins shooting today.

Lindsay Wagner, Gary Busey and Simon R. Baker (whose credits range from "The Missing" and "Buffalo Dreams" to Steven Spielberg's upcoming miniseries "Into the West") lead the cast.

Bob Holland's screenplay focuses on a troubled teen (Baker) who's "sentenced," after a run-in with the law, to turn his life around by working on a ranch (owned by Wagner's character) under the tutelage of two veteran cowboys. (Executive producer Greg Shelton plays one of them.)

Although Spring Mountain Ranch provides the primary location, a variety of urban settings also turn up on the shooting schedule, Brooks notes.

Today's locations, for example, include exteriors on downtown's Seventh Street, between Bonneville and Garces avenues, and the Desert Radiologists office on Eastern Avenue. (The latter provides a suitable setting for Busey's character, a doctor.)

And on Thursday, the Clark County Courthouse plays the lead location -- doubling for a Denver counterpart, according to Brooks.

That's because "Buckaroo" takes place in Colorado. And while the low-budget production will "go to Denver to do a few shots," everything else will shoot in Southern Nevada, the director notes.

"With Spring Mountain, you don't know where you are," Brooks points out. "Nevada is playing Colorado."

And "Vegas Baby," which filmed here in January, is scheduled to return Thursday to a downtown alley for background shots.

Elsewhere on location this week, Hollywood -- or, more precisely, Hollywood HEART -- invades Las Vegas this week as 10 teen Boys and Girls Club members work with industry pros to create their own short film, to premiere at June's CineVegas film festival at the Palms.

Hollywood HEART (which stands for Hope, Education, Arts, Recreation and Teamwork) "wanted to take the program out of Southern California," explains Las Vegas native Angela Coury, who recently moved back to Southern Nevada from Southern California.

And "all kids have an interest in movies, so for them to see first-hand what goes into it" presents a unique opportunity, notes Christine Skorupski, community relations manager of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada.

Screenwriters George Doty ("What's New, Scooby-Doo?") and David Castro will help 10 club members from throughout the valley develop a script Thursday at the Lied Memorial Boys and Girls Club in central Las Vegas. On Friday, the emphasis is on pre-production, with preparations ranging from casting to location scouting to set and costume design.

The actual shoot takes place Saturday, with director Andrew Putschoegl and other volunteers, local and visiting, assisting the Boys and Girls Club crew.

Sometimes the neophyte filmmakers are surprised to learn that "they don't shoot the movie in order," Coury says. "They assume you turn on the camera and it's like a play, where you go from beginning to end."

The CineVegas connection is a film-festival first for the Movie Team program, Coury notes, "so this is a big deal. This is something different for us."

Two overseas documentaries also turn up this week.

Arte, the cultural channel for French and German TV, is expected in town today for a segment on Las Vegas history as seen through the eyes of veteran photographer Don English, who worked for the Las Vegas News Bureau during Neon Nirvana's golden age. The segment will be shown on Arte's "Cultural Journal" program, according to writer-producer Stephan Mueller.

Germany's "Voxtours Metropolen," meanwhile, continues production with director Alexander Bruch, cameraman Christoph Schimmelpfennig and camera assistant Sven Atze Bender on the town. Among their scheduled stops: Star Trek: The Experience at the Hilton, the Young Electric Sign Co. and Vegas wedding chapels where three German couples are expected to tie the knot.

Also on this week's location calendar: a truck commercial featuring shots ranging from the Strip to Nelson, a dry lake bed and downtown's Plaza.

Finally, in our casting corner, two open calls will be held today for an upcoming short titled "Whitewash," from Las Vegas-based Faith Road Productions, which is expected to shoot in late May or early June. Roles are available for men 25 to 55 years old and females 25 to 35. More information is available at http://www.faithroad.com.