Movie shooting leaves some motorists fuming

Wednesday, June 14, 2000 | 11:54 a.m.

It may be a hit at the box office, but a new movie being filmed in Las Vegas is leaving some motorists fuming.

The movie "The Mexican" stars Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, and is being filmed in several locations in Southern Nevada.

In the process, film crews have shut down a section of the busy Summerlin Parkway on three different days. The move was made to shoot a "complicated stunt sequence and a dialogue scene," according to film location manager Doug Dresser.

Tom Dunlap a northwest Las Vegas resident, was halted by police at a roadblock on Saturday.

"We were stuck there," Dunlap said. "We couldn't go for 20 minutes. One guy in front of us was ranting and raving and screaming like a maniac. This is what I've got to look forward to every time Hollywood comes to town?"

The high-profile films are a much-sought-after commodity for state officals, including Gov. Kenny Guinn and Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt. Documentaries, movies, music videos and commercials brought 500 projects and an estimated $80 million to the state last year, according to the Nevada Film Office.

"A few days of inconvenience in the community results in literally millions of dollars of revenue to Las Vegas and the surrounding areas, and in many cases sometimes we get 20 years of publicity out of film," said Jeanne Corcoran, the film office's production coordinator. She said her office has worked with 12 feature films since January and expects 11 more in the next six to nine months.

Charles Geocaris, the Nevada Film Office's director, said movie-making provides a low-impact alternative to gambling revenue for Nevada.

"This industry is nonpolluting and environmentally friendly," he said. "They use what you have location-wise and leave with their film."

"Movie companies are mandated to restore a location to the condition in which they found it," Corcoran said. "Oftentimes they leave it cleaner than they found it."