Hollywood homes in on Arkansas.

Six Films Roll in '98; More Major Projects in Works

Whether it's the attention brought to Arkansas last year by Malvern's Billy Bob Thornton and his surprise hit "Sling Blade," or whether it's just that the Natural State's scenery is getting more notice with a connection to the White House, moviemakers have their focus on Arkansas.

Six projects packed with prominent names from either Hollywood or the independent filmmaking industry have overlapped each other in recent months throughout the state. They range from the low-budget indie "Grief" to Thornton's "Daddy and Them," which began filming last week in and around Little Rock.

Miramax, the Hollywood studio producing "Daddy and Them," won't reveal the film's budget; estimates from others involved put it at less than $10 million, but more than the $1 million Thornton spent making the acclaimed "Sling Blade" around Benton. Thornton, who won the Oscar for his screenplay for "Sling Blade" and was nominated for his acting, is starring in and directing "Daddy and Them."

"The White River Kid," being filmed independently by Arne Glimcher and starring Antonio Banderas, Bob Hoskins and country singer Randy Travis and featuring many other big names on either side of the camera, is about to wrap up filming in the next two weeks. Its budget, too, is estimated in the $5 million-$10 million range.

"The average Hollywood film costs $60 million. We're doing this movie for a fraction of that," says associate producer Jim Solomon. "The people involved are doing it because of the chance to work with each other and because they feel strongly about the material. Some people can't afford to do material that is meaningful to them. This is that type of movie."

Robert Katz, line producer on "The White River Kid," estimates that $3.5 million-$4 million will be spent in Arkansas for the project. That ranges from salaries for local extras to money spent on materials. More than 100 out-of-state people, from the director to the caterers, are working on the film, which used Hot Springs, Sheridan, Mount Ida, Caddo Gap and Petit Jean as locales.

"It's easier and less expensive to shoot in cities that are movie centers in the South like Austin [Texas], Orlando and New Orleans and places like L.A., where you can pretend that you are in Arkansas," Solomon says. "But the director [Glimcher] was determined to shoot a movie set entirely in Arkansas to authenticate the story in terms of sets and characters that appear on film."

Another film project with a substantial budget and cast could be announced shortly, according to officials with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. And an out-of-state crew member for "The White River Kid" confided last week that Arkansas likely will see two more films start early next year. It was only because so many other films were already under way that kept those two from starting earlier.

"A Killing in the Market," "The Crown" and "Muddy Fork" are other feature films using Arkansas as the primary location this year.

"Obviously Billy Bob has brought attention to Arkansas with 'Sling Blade,'" says Sarah Tackett, who operates The Agency, a casting company in Little Rock. "There is also a trend with scripts right now in that Southern culture is cool. We've seen so many features lately with a Southern focus."

The surge in movies being made in Arkansas and around the South has boosted Tackett's business. She cast 1,250 paid extras, a number of day players and a double for Banderas for "The White River Kid" and another 175 extras and 11 speaking roles for "Daddy and Them," plus several actors for films such as "The Crown," which wrapped almost a month ago.

Tackett has done casting for 15 films in recent years, including several filmed in neighboring states. The Agency provided extras for "The Rainmaker," filmed a couple of years ago near Memphis, and this year was involved in Banderas' "Crazy in Alabama," which was actual filmed in Houma, La., as well as projects in Mississippi and Tennessee.

Tackett can barely find room for visitors to sit in her office on Sixth Street, what with the stacks of applications from potential actors. With "The White River Kid" in full swing, she and assistant Alison Fulmer and their other help have been working 18-19 hour days, mostly in the office.

"Some days are worse than others," Tackett says. Occasionally they've been called out to the set; but, with most locations one or two hours a way, most of the work has been by telephone.

"The thing about the extras casting is we don't get the calls until [daily] wrap time," she says. "We often try to work two or three days in advance, but sometimes we can't. Last night after I got home, we got a call to get extras to Antoine [Pike County]."

The Agency held three open casting calls for the "The White River Kid" earlier this summer, all drawing hundreds of applicants. For "Daddy and Them," the firm advertised for extras, and Tackett says hundreds of applications continue to arrive by mail daily.

Most paid extras make minimum wage. Those with speaking parts can receive the Screen Actors Guild scale of $576 for an eight-hour day. An actor signed as a weekly player will make $2,000 a week.

AEDC's Role

A state film office has for years attempted to recruit moviemakers to Arkansas. Though always part of the AEDC, the film office operated independently until Barbara Pardue took over early this year as AEDC director.

"The film office has always stood alone, a separate little group that never shared the entire resources of this agency," says Alan McVey, deputy director of the AEDC. "We've moved the film office and made it an integrated part of the marketing and information services team."

Now, with Prisca Hohnbaum leading the office, film recruitment is a component of the AEDC system. "It's worked extremely well," McVey says. "I think the number of films that your seeing, the production work that's being done in Arkansas, is a direct benefit of that."

The AEDC, McVey says, is actively participating in several trade shows, including one in Los Angeles in which major filmmakers participate.

"We try to market Arkansas in a variety of ways, and that's just one," he says.

The AEDC has no hard figures on the impact of filmmaking in the state. McVey says, "We view any production work done in Arkansas as positive to the state's economy. We'll work with anyone who's coming and looking just to shoot commercial production work in Arkansas as well as a feature film."

But, he adds, "There are significant amounts of money being spent here."

Tackett has seen the Arkansas film business run in cycles. For a while in the mid-'80s, filmmakers were interested in blowing up the state Capitol as a replica of the one in Washington, D.C., or using small-town locales as sets.

"In 1985-87, they did five movies here back-to-back, then it just dried up," she says. "Then, it picks up again. You just never know in the movie business."

RELATED ARTICLE: Big Film Names Hit Arkansas

Everyone Familiar with movies today knows the names Antonio Banderas and Bob Hoskins, and likely they also know Ellen Barkin, Beau Bridges and Swoosie Kurtz. The younger crowd may know Kim Dickens, from "Great Expectations." Country music fans no doubt know Randy Travis.

Those are the stars in front of the camera for "The White River Kid." But the movie being filmed during an eight-week period in Arkansas has some phenomenal talent putting the project together and who are responsible for the finished product.

Besides director/co-producer Arne Glimcher - he directed "The Mambo Kings" with Banderas and the Sean Connery-Lawrence Fishburn vehicle "Just Cause" and produced "Gorillas in the Mist" - the crew reads like a who's who of big-time Hollywood movies. That they all came together for an independent project like this says much about "The White River Kid."

Co-producer Robert Greenhut has produced 23 Woody Allen films, including Academy Award winner "Annie Hall." He also did the popular "A League of Their Own."

Director of photography Michael Chapman had the same role in the Martin Scorsese-directed "Taxi Driver" that starred Robert DeNiro, and has done 28 other films as the cinematographer, including "Raging Bull" and "The Fugitive," which earned him oscar nominations.

Editor Sam O'Steen has edited a fabulous array of movies, including "The Graduate," "Chinatown, "Rosemary's Baby," "Cool Hand Luke" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf."

Production designer Bill Groom has done "A League of Their Own" and 11 other features.

"There are some seriously impressive people working on this movie," says associate producer Jim Solomon, who adds that the production has had to complement those talents with more than 1,000 extras, some of whom had to be specifically trained for their bit parts.

"The White River Kid," adapted from a novel "The Little Brothers of St. Mortimer" by John Fergus Ryan and six years in the making, is a dramatic comedy about a small-time con man (Hoskins) and his sidekick (Banderas) who are traveling across Arkansas selling socks out of their van. They are taken captive by the White River Kid, played by Wes Bentley (an Arkansas native now living in New York), and his fiancee (Dickens). They embark on a wild adventure through Arkansas, encountering a singing sheriff (Travis), a blind hooker (Barkin) and the mad-cap Weed family (Bridges and Kurtz).