Steve Buscemi has already eaten more than his fill of sand and dust. Of course, he can't exactly voice his displeasure at the moment.
Buscemi, playing psychotic serial killer Garland Greene, has been bound by a straightjacket, as well as leather restraints tied around his waist, limbs and mouth. The leather straps, which really work, don't keep out flying sand particles, but they do prevent him from complaining too loudly about the wind and dust being whipped up by huge high-speed fans. His muffled groans are still audible, though.Unfortunately for Buscemi, the film crew, shooting at the Ogden-Hinckley Airport, needed three more takes just to get this particular scene right. (His character is supposed to be transferred from an armored car to a transport bus.)
He's not the only one playing a role during the day's shoot, however. Ogden and its airport are actually supposed to be Carson City, Nev., during this scene and others in "Con Air," a new action-suspense film that will be released next spring.
In addition, airports in both Salt Lake City and Wendover have subbed for those in other locales - including Los Angeles, Oakland and Las Vegas - in the new movie.
Extensive filming for "Con Air" began in Salt Lake City in late June. The film crew moved to Ogden in early July and is just wrapping up its stint in Wendover this week.
The film stars Nicolas Cage as Cameron Poe, a just-paroled convict who is a passenger on a prisoner transport plane, nicknamed "Con Air." In addition to Poe, there are also several vicious criminals on board, including Buscemi's mass murderer character and Cyrus "the Virus" Grissom (John Malkovich), all heading the other way - to a maximum-security prison in Utah.
A group of prisoners, led by Grissom, hijack the plane and capture the U.S. marshals guarding them. Eventually, "Con Air" crashes outside of Las Vegas, and U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin (John Cusack) must round up all the escapees, aided by Poe.
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who is responsible for such hits as "The Rock," "Dangerous Minds" and "Crimson Tide," said he chose Utah for much of the location shooting because it has three very different airports in close proximity.
"They're all so near, yet all so unique, and that makes it ideal for shooting," Bruckheimer said. "In cases like this you can get most of the filming done on schedule and under budget. The choice of location is as important as the selection of the actors and director - in some cases, more important."
First-time film director Simon West agreed. "We've got places in this state where you've got a major city, casinos (on the Nevada side of Wendover) and deserts that can have extremely unpredictable weather," said West, an award-winning video and commercial director who headed the Budweiser frog commercials and the TV spot in which a boy is sucked into a Pepsi bottle.
However, one thing Ogden didn't provide was the sand and dust for the sandstorm. Instead, the prop department brought in its own sand mixture, which stagehands sprayed in front of the huge fans for the effect. In fact, Bruckheimer said the storm may be digitally enhanced during post-production to make it even more spectacular.
"The bigger, the better," he said with a shrug. This from the man who has had his effects crews destroy a replica of Alcatraz in "The Rock" and crash a facsimile of a Fairchild C-123K transport plane in the desert outside of Las Vegas for this new film.
And Bruckheimer's infectious glee at the potential mayhem spread to the "Con Air" aerial stunt coordinator, David Jones: "Isn't this a great job? We get to crash things."
There are some things that these boys and their toys can't damage, though: the real Fairchild C-123K loaned to the film by the U.S. Army and the airport, of course.
"We've got to be careful with this plane," said Jones (who also coordinated the aerial stunts for films ranging from "Tora Tora Tora" to "Waterworld").
"They won't let us shoot any holes into it. They've got no sense of humor."
Actually, the plane, which features a pair of propellers and jet engines, is a national treasure. This particular C-123 was used to transport ground troops in the Vietnam War, Jones noted.
Elsewhere, at the Ogden-Hinckley Airport, the "Con Air" crew has actually put in some new improvements. Manager Jeremy Taylor is delighted with what they have done for his airport, including a new fence and flagpole, as well as renovations on the airport tower and firehouse.
"It's great," Taylor said. "I wish all visitors would leave the airport in better shape than when they entered it."
They also constructed a new building at the Salt Lake International Airport, but it wasn't permanent. "That one looked real, too, but it was there for a completely different reason," Bruckheimer said, grinning. (The reason, of course, was to blow it up.)
The two weeks of filming in Ogden attracted quite a crowd, many hoping to get glimpses of the film's stars. That didn't stop the production, though. The only thing that halted the "Con Air" crew, albeit temporarily, was an air show for the Weber County Fair.
"Some things here are bigger than we are, like plane shows, I guess," Bruckheimer said.
Overall, Bruckheimer and company have had a very positive experience in Utah.
"It's been a fair trade-off," he said. "We've gotten what we needed here, and Utah will get a lot out of it in publicity. It will help (state officials) promote the state for more movie productions."
In addition to the airport improvements, Bruckheimer's production has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into Utah's economy over the course of its six-week stay, he estimated. Also, quite a few Utahns, including members of Ogden and Roy's police departments, served as extras.