Filming near for tale based on brothel’s history

RENO -- A film based loosely on Nevada's infamous Mustang Ranch brothel and its former owners Joe and Sally Conforte will start filming early next year, state officials said.

Oscar-winning actors Joe Pesci and Helen Mirren are to star in the movie, "Love Ranch."

Variety.com said the film is a drama about a couple who opened the first legal brothel in Nevada and the violence that followed when their relationship was tested by infidelity.

That plot line mirrors the history of Joe Conforte and his wife, Sally, who opened the Mustang Ranch brothel, east of Reno, in 1971.

In 1976, boxer Oscar Bonavena, who was managed by Sally Conforte and was suspected of having an affair with her, was shot to death outside the Mustang Ranch.

But Robin Holabird of the Nevada Film Office said the movie is not a historical portrayal.

"The film is informed by the Conforte story, as anyone familiar with the area's history would know, but it's not a blow-by-blow account of the Mustang Ranch," Holabird said.

"The film doesn't try to be factually accurate."

Most of the film will be shot in New Mexico, but scenes are planned for Reno, Storey County and Carson City.

The story is told from the perspective of the brothel madam, played by Mirren, said Toni Suttie, whose Reno company, Integrity Casting, is hiring actors and extras for the film.

"It's not a brothel movie. It's about the rise and fall of this couple and about what they went through in 1976," Suttie said.