Stephen King movie production in town

It's taken more than a decade to get its motor running, but "Dolan's Cadillac" has finally hit the streets of Las Vegas.

The big-screen Stephen King adaptation -- about a teacher (Wes Bentley) obsessed with avenging his wife's murder at the hands of the title mobster (Christian Slater) -- is scheduled to wrap a three-day shoot Tuesday at locations ranging from the Strip to the Fremont Street Experience to the desert.

The tale (featured in King's 1993 "Nightmares and Dreamscapes") takes place in Las Vegas, but most of the shoot took place far north of Glitter City, in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.

Given the project's history, it's amazing the shoot took place anywhere; Kevin Bacon, Sylvester Stallone, Gabriel Byrne, Dennis Hopper, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Val Kilmer are just some of the names rumored to be involved in "Dolan's Cadillac" during the past decade.

"Magic" moment: Another set-in-Vegas feature, "Magic Man," qualifies as a made-in-Vegas feature as well, with a scheduled Sunday start at downtown's Plaza. Other locations during the monthlong shoot include the Sahara and a downtown apartment.

Written and directed by Stuart Cooper, "Magic Man" casts Billy Zane in the title role: world-famous magician Krell Darius, who fascinates a visiting New Yorker in town to investigate her mother's long-ago death during a magic trick gone fatally awry.

Criminal minds: A pair of cable documentaries visit to explore the lives and legends of two notorious Vegas names.

Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, the Chicago mob's Las Vegas boss (and the inspiration for Joe Pesci's character in Martin Scorsese's "Casino"), is the subject of an upcoming hourlong Biography channel profile slated for its "Mobsters" series. Which explains why Chicago-based Towers Productions plans a three-day shoot this week.

And the Investigation Discovery channel's upcoming "The Heist" focuses on four heists, globe-trotting from Belgium to Buenos Aires to Southern California.

And, of course, to Southern Nevada, where Cuban-born casino robber Jose Vigoa (subject of the book "Storming Las Vegas: How a Cuban-Born, Soviet-Trained Commando Took Down the Strip to the Tune of Five World-Class Hotels, Three Armored Cars and Millions of Dollars") led heists at the MGM Grand, Desert Inn, Mandalay Bay and Bellagio. That is, until surveillance cameras caught him without a mask, leading to a 2002 life sentence.

Design time: A new cable show focusing on design-challenged homeowners plans a late-July shoot -- assuming officials can find locals who need a decor makeover.

If you know someone whose tiki palace or retro-Vegas time capsule needs a redesign (and can keep a secret from them), contact casting director Alesia Cook at casting4design@gmail.com.

Carol Cling's Shooting Stars column appears Mondays. Contact her at (702) 383-0272 or e-mail her at ccling@reviewjournal.com.