Shot here, premiering here

By Jerry Fink (contact)

Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Steve Marcus

Malcolm Brooks’ “Heroes,” filmed in Las Vegas, will have its world premiere Friday at Neonopolis. The movie is the story of a man who gets the chance to become the hero he has longed to be when police are unable to solve the murder of his nephew.

Malcolm Brooks would have shot his first film on a shoestring, but he couldn’t afford a shoestring.

“I worked, saving my nickels,” Brooks says. “I thought I could make it for $20,000, but that was a fantasy. There were so many problems, it ended up costing over $50,000.”

Hollywood productions sometimes spend more than that on lunches.

His film, the drama “Heroes,” was shot entirely in Vegas on a mini-digital Canon XL 2 video camcorder with a crew of eight — sometimes fewer.

The fruit of Brooks’ low-budget labor premieres Friday at Neonopolis’ Galaxy Theaters. The film runs through Oct. 9.

“This is an important step for me in fulfilling a long journey I started years ago,” Brooks says. “I have always dreamed of being a moviemaker in Las Vegas.”

The Shreveport, La., native has a 23-year off-and-on relationship with Vegas. He joined the Air Force after graduating from high school and worked in human resources at Nellis for almost eight years.

“While I was there I realized I wanted to be an actor and in the movie business,” Brooks says.

After his discharge in 1983 he moved to Los Angeles to hone his craft. He studied acting and writing and produced a short film, “The Revolutionaries.”

“I never had any commercial success, but I did a lot of work with independent filmmakers,” he says.

He returned to Las Vegas two years ago and began shooting “Heroes.”

It wasn’t his plan to act in his own movie, but he was forced to.

“One guy didn’t show up,” Brooks says. “He had one or two lines, so I had to jump in there.

“I started out wanting to act, but acting isn’t so much. I don’t have that passion anymore. I just want to write and produce and direct.”

He began shooting “Heroes” on Feb. 11, 2006. It took more than two years to get it in the can. He decided against film festivals and the straight-to-video route.

“This is it, the world premiere,” he says. “That’s my dream, to have a film in theaters. That’s where I’m going.”

If all goes well during its limited run in Las Vegas, he will take the film to Texas.

“We’ll take the numbers we do here in Vegas and branch out to other chains,” Brooks says. “What I do here gives me more power to move to other theaters in other cities.”