A number of people have phoned wondering what movie is shooting in town; they've seen all those trucks and vans carting film equipment to various locations in and around Salt Lake City.
But it's not an easy question to answer. For the first time in anyone's memory there are no fewer than three major movies filming in the valley at once, all with extended shooting schedules.Mickey Rourke, most recently seen in "Johnny Handsome," stars in "The Desperate Hours," a remake of the old Bogart film. Directing is Michael Cimino, who won Oscars for "The Deer Hunter" and then was the scapegoat for industry cost overruns after "Heaven's Gate."
Also starring is Anthony Hopkins, whose array of fine film performances include the doctor in "The Elephant Man," the demented ventriloquist in "Magic," Capt. Bligh in "The Bounty," the bookseller in "84 Charing Cross Road" and the title role in "The Good Father."
Co-starring are Kelly Lynch ("Road House"), Mimi Rogers ("Someone to Watch Over Me") and Lindsay Crouse ("House of Games").
"The Desperate Hours" was shooting at the City-County Building Tuesday, and Wednesday was in the Salt Lake Tribune offices - but not for a newspaper scene. The Trib newsroom doubled as an FBI office. (Rumors are unfounded, however, that the FBI office across the street will double as a newsroom.)
Also shooting locally is "The Dream Machine," a comedy-thriller starring Corey Haim, teen star of "Lucas," "The Lost Boys" and "License to Drive."
That picture is being directed by Lyman Dayton, a Utah filmmaker whose recent work includes "On Our Own" and "Solo."
The third film is "DMZ," a Korean War film shooting mainly at a camp constructed in Grantsville, the site of swooping helicopters on Friday. Paul Sorvino stars.
Utah Film Commission director Leigh von der Esch says the filmmakers have all been very complimentary about the state and two phrases are almost becoming cliches: "We just didn't realize how green Utah was" and "You're only an hour away (from Los Angeles)."
"We're having a fabulous year," von der Esch said. "And these films are so different it bodes well for our opportunities to promote the state as a diversified location."
Utah is often the location site for movies set elsewhere - "Halloween 5," for example, was shot in Salt Lake City but set in Haddonfield, Ill.
But von der Esch said the trend may be turning around. A film Utah lost to Nevada, "The Wizard," will still be identified as set in Utah. "The Desperate Hours" and "The Dream Machine" are also set here as well as being filmed here.
-THE RECENT HORROR film "Night Game" did so poorly at the box office it will likely not set a new trend, but the idea of combining the slasher and baseball genres gave me pause.
After all, slasher films taking place during holidays are passe - or maybe it's just that all the holidays are used up: "Halloween," "Silent Night, Deadly Night," "My Bloody Valentine," "Mother's Day," etc. (I've been waiting in vein for "The Arbor Day Massacre.")
But after "Night Game" maybe slasher films could focus on sporting events: "The Hockey Puck Killings," "Football Fright," "Bloody Basketball" or "Sock Her!"
Or, maybe not.
-ANYONE OUT THERE remember "Carnival of Souls"?
This low-budget, independent 1962 horror yarn, filmed mostly near the Great Salt Lake, has been a late-late show favorite for years, and now, some 27 years later, it is apparently building a cult following of some size.
Leonard Maltin wasn't all that thrilled with the film, which he gives a moderately recommendable 2 1/2 stars in his "TV Movies & Video Guide."
But no less than the dean of American film critics, Pauline Kael, recently led off her New Yorker magazine column with a rave review for "Carnival of Souls," revived at a Manhattan art house.
"Carnival of Souls" is also on video, but I can't find a Salt Lake video rental store that has it, which was quite a surprise considering all the trashy horror films so many of them have on their shelves.
-HORROR MOVIE NOMINATIONS to add to last week's list of suggested videos for Halloween, gleaned from several readers who phoned during the week:
"Dragonslayer," "Village of the Damned," "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (animated and live-action versions), "Repulsion," "Targets," "Trilogy of Terror," "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (both versions), "The Thing" (1959 version) and, in the R-rated category, "Alien" and "Aliens."
-QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Horror author Stephen King, speaking with Knight-Ridder's Irv Slifkin about the recent video release of "Pet Sematary":
"I like the film a lot. Many of the reviews were negative. That's a good sign in a horror picture. It shows that you did something right. It means that you certainly offended somebody."
-QUOTE OF THE WEEK II: Pauline Collins, the star of "Shirley Valentine," in which she has a nude scene, talking with Bob Thomas for the Associated Press:
"It's not a big deal in Europe, nudity. Most people are nude or semi-nude on the beaches. People don't wear tops there anymore. My only qualms were that I wished I was younger and thinner. But I ain't."
-QUOTE OF THE WEEK III: Veteran writer-director Billy Wilder, reminded by the Boston Globe's Michael Blowen that he was occasionally accused of being too vulgar in his movies:
"Vulgar? Vulgar? I'll tell you about vulgar. I'm the last person who believes in censorship in any form, but all these dead bodies piled up and every other word is mother this and mother that. In movies today there's all this nudity. I'm no prude. There's nothing better than a naked woman. But I can't tell what's what in all these movies. Is that her shoulder or his knee? No, no, it's his elbow. I can't stand it. And they call me vulgar because the films have an edge to them. God help us."