December 5, 2007
"The Burning Plain," a Guillermo Arriaga movie, is scheduled to begin filming in El Paso Monday (Dec. 10), according to the El Paso Film Commission.
The movie stars Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger, in a story about a mother (Basinger) and daughter (Theron) trying to form a bond and overcome a difficult relationship, reports The Internet Movie Database.
Theron's recent movies that "Aeon Flux," "North Country" and "The Italian Job." Basinger recently starred in "The Informers" and "While She Was Out."
Local filming is scheduled to begin 6 a.m. Monday and will last till 8 p.m. Wednesday at Southwestern General Hospital. The hospital, which currently has no patients, will be used to represent a Mexican hospital, according to the Film Commission. Oscar-nominated Arriaga, (of "Babel" and "21 Grams" fame) expects to shoot outside the hospital between 6 a.m. and noon each day.
Keeping with the authenticity of the scene, certain street signs will also be replaced to look like Mexican street signs, the Film Commission wrote in a memo to city officials.
According to the letter, "Residents and business's needing to access the Murchison East area, to get to Tremont, Ohio, Pittsburgh, etc., will have local-thru traffic access, along with Sun Metro. Vehicles wanting to travel West on Murchison at Cotton, will be rerouted at Detroit by the El Paso PD."
"This doesn't happen so often, it's a bit of an inconvenience but residents have fun with it too. People understand that it's a good thing for the city, it's good PR for the community," said city Rep. Susie Byrd, whose district includes part of the area where the filming will take place.
EPPD officers and vehicles are expected to be stationed around the area and at key intersections as traffic may be blocked off in certain areas for upto three minutes at a time. Emergency vehicles will not be diverted.
The Film Commission memo also says that residents in the area have been notified via "Good Neighbor" letters.
The production, which in addition to the three days spent filming, will spend seven days setting up and a further two days wrapping up, is expected to net the city in the region of $250,000, according to the memo. The movie is expected to premiere in 2009.
The El Paso Film Commission website claims that the total benefit to the city from movies filmed in the area over the years is in the region of $10 billion.