Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 77

Sunday, July 21, 1985 2F Reno Gazette-Journal Western movies Wagon train From page 1F "I've had good years and bad years," Calkins said, at the wheel of his old station wagon while en route to a shoot in the desert. "Either one, you can't make your living. But with the two of them and trading horses, I've done pretty good." He plans to continue his dual businesses of providing equipment and extras for making westerns as well as providing covered wagon trips for tourists and wagons for them to camp in at the ranch. Having people stay in covered wagons, Calkins said, is "quite a gimmick." Once you put up cabins, pretty soon people start demaijdijig'shpweri arid television set.le xplaihed.i In order to keep cars off the ranch, he plans to run a few stagecoaches to pick up overnight guests at the edge of his ranch and bring them to the Western town. But that's still a long way off.

No utilities have been installed no water, no phone, no electricity. But that will come, he said, with the next big film job, hopefully this summer. He estimates it will cost $12,000 to $15,000 to drill a well and bring in the other services. Calkins moved to Fallon 25 years ago after a career riding the rodeo circuit. But the decision to move to Fallon wasn't exactly a conscious one.

"I was standing in Fallon and had $5 in my pocket," he said. He got a few jobs breaking horses and just "kind of stayed on." Now he is moving away from Fallon because the town is growing up. "At one time, I was out of town. It served its purpose. Then the town moved near me." His crew at the ranch includes real roughriders such as Bernie Lamoreaux, a Nevada cattle drover who does fast-draw and shootout scenes, and Bud Backman.

James KenneyGazette-Journal ISOLATED: Dean Calkins' Bar Film Ranch sits all by itself only a few miles from Lahontan Reservoir. movie is about post World War III, a time when robots are exact replicas of humans. Casting has not been completed, but the leading man will fall in love with a female robot who needs a new mechanical part. The part can only be obtained in Las Vegas, an off-limits area since the war, so the man sets off with a human female companion on the perilous adventure to get the part. In the end, he discovers he really loves the real woman and not the robot, Hirsch explained.

Filming will begin Sept. 30 and is expected to conclude Dec. 11. More than a dozen television and theater films have been shot in Las Vegas alone during the past year, among them "Starman," two episodes of "Hill Street Blues," episodes of "Remington Steele," "Benson" and "Vegas Strip Wars." That repertoire does not even include some of the most famous movies made in Nevada, like John Wayne's "The Shootist," or "The Misfits," starring Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe, Hirsch said. Future projects planned for Nevada include "Rocky IV" with Sylvester Stallone and "Stark," a television series.

The onslaught of Nevada film making can't all be attributed to the commission and its advertising, Ormiston said. In fact, Nevada is actually "decades behind" other states that have long been promoting themselves as would-be movie sites. "We are a very conservative state," Ormiston said. "Before the recession, we didn't need any other revenue than what we got from gaming. The whole idea of government facilitating another business was a hard one to accept at first, whereas other states took it with a laissez faire attitude." But now Nevada accepts the industry with open arms, which greatly relieves Barbara For-man.

Forman is the chairwoman of the Bristlecone Film Committee in Ely, which was formed by a small group of citizens struggling to keep the economy alive in their tiny mining town of 5,000. They formed the committee in 1983, two years after the Kenne-cott Copper the largest open pit copper mine in the world, closed in Ely, leaving 3,200 people jobless. Although Ely officials agree they will need more than just the film industry to help their town, they welcomed last week's shooting of their first major film, "Georgia County Lock-up," about women being kidnapped off the streets and forced to live on a work farm. From page 1F revival that he has contributed about one-fourth of his total $193,000 budget to a new advertising campaign emphasizing the Western motif. An ad to be published in movie trade magazines next month features a cowboy, cowgirl and a horse against the backdrop of a panoramic northern Nevada vista.

The slogan accompanying them is "High, wide and handsome." "My theory better be correct (about the Western returning) or else it will be like selling tickets to the Titanic," said Hirsch, explaining that the follow-up advertisement also focuses on the Western angle. But even without cowboy movies, Nevada is hitting a financial vein with its film industry. For the fiscal year between July 1984 and June 1985, filmmakers spent at least $26.6 million in Nevada, Hirsch said, double the $13 million brought in the previous fiscal year. When Gov. Richard Bryan formed the film division two years ago, the state was garnering about $5 million a year in movie production money.

"I won't say I expect to double the amount again this year, but it wouldn't shock me," said Hirsch. "We have no reason to think we've peaked out." In anticipation of more business, a part-time position was created this month for an assistant who would aid in both economic development and the filming industry. Julie Wilcox, formerly assistant to the state housing director, was chosen to fill that position, said George Ormiston, senior associate director for the development commmission. Wilcox, who also holds degrees in business and worked extensively on the commission's diversification program, does not have experience in the film industry, Ormiston and Hirsch conceded. They said it was virtually impossible to find someone with experience in both economic development and film, so they decided it would be easier to teach someone about the latter subject than the former.

During the last three weeks, Wilcox has been assisting in site preparations for Nevada's biggest moneymaking film so far "Cherry 2000" a science fiction movie that will drop about $10 million into Nevada's wallet during 11 weeks of filming. The entire movie will be shot at 200 different Nevada sites from Tonopah to Las Vegas unlike all movies before it where only portions were completed here. Produced by Pressman Film Corp. and released by Orion, the With their weathered faces and twinkling eyes, either one could pose as the Marlboro Man in magazine ads. The only hitch at his new location is a small cluster of trailers owned by one family at the edge of the valley, interrupting the wide vista that can be seen from the ranch.

But with a little landswapping, he expects he can get the family to move to some better ground, closer to the lake. Calkins won't be moving to the ranch until he can get a phone. This bondage to modern life is a necessity if he is to stay in touch with film crews who need his services. Meanwhile, artist LeAnatah, a Chowtaw Indian from eastern Mississippi, looks over the ranch while she paints Western scenes. n0 James KenneyGazette-Journal STUBBORN CUSS: Dean Calkins wrestles with his oxen during the filming of a West German television series near Lahontan Reservoir.

Film crew through the crusted, cracked desert floor. The wagon train would eventually grind to a halt, with the last man dying of thirst. But even before the rain came, plans were changed. Just before sunset, the fragile, irreplaceable wagons were driven down a washed-out road through two sets of utility poles to the desert for more filming. It was a strange sight to see Hoffman filming the wagon train winding through the utility poles, with the vast desert lying to one side of the road.

Without those few seconds of precious film, the whole day's shooting could have been accomplished at Calkins' new ranch, without having to haul a single wagon. As it was, filming went on until midnight, with Rocky Anderson, a cowboy singer from Dayton, strumming a guitar and singing by a campfire encircled by wagons. A couple of kids fell asleep at his side. Camp broke at midnight, when the film crew was satisifed with the day's work. oxen down the road a piece to settle them down.

But the oxen bolted and kicked all the way in defiance of the yoke around their necks. They were given up as a lost cause. And Calkins was risking his neck doing a job where he would just about break even. While this Wild West show was going on, Ciechowski's cameraman sat on a distant hill, waiting for the wagon train to roll by. And Ciechowski, standing in front of his rented motorhome, declared it was "all a waste of time." But bringing four authentic pioneer wagons, 12 horses and six oxen to ttie desert was a feat in itself, with Calkins and his crew up before daybreak.

Ciechowski originally planned to shoot the wagon train traveling From page 1F Hoffman said the series will air in Germany in January and is hopeful it can be sold in the United States. Ciechowski missed one of the most exciting scenes of the day Calkins, a former rodeo cowboy from Fallon, and Bob "Bear Claw" Stutsman, of Dayton, wrestling four head of semi-wild oxen, allegedly trained to pull a wagon. Calkins just missed being gored 'when he was sandwiched between Itwo wagons and the flying horns and hoofs of two oxen. The team was fighting against being hitched to another team of oxen in order to pull a wagon. Calkins and Stutsman took the Tom Jensen THE CHOICE OF CONFIDENCE I IRISH I Construction "Confidence in Quality Performance" Custom Homes Custom Remodeling Additions Custom Cabinets Designing Residential Commercial CRYSIAB -CO.

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