After one week
here I wrote this as an opening card for the film:
Mexico
City is a city of contradictions. With more than twenty-million people it is
a culturally and intellectually vital city with a population filled with some
of the world's leading writers, artists, architects and intellectuals.
Unfortunately
since the devaluation of the peso in 1994 it has also become one of the most
unsafe big cities in the world. In 1998 the New York Times reported that the
crime rate was increasing by 30% per year and corruption was rampant.
Today Mexico
City stands at a crossroads between the city it can ill afford to become, and
the city it has always striven to be...
It is one thing
to try and make a movie. Any movie. But making it in a foreign country is a
another story all together. Like any time you travel, the sights sounds and
smells are overwhelming. Add to that 14 hours of work every day and tons of
new people to meet and work with and you end up with one draining week, and
one zonked director.
We have been
lucky enough to get into business with a great Mexican film company called Background,
which basically did the same thing that they're doing for us for the recent
Kiefer Sutherland, Courtney Love movie that shot here. Courtney was much despised.
She showed up four hours late on the first day of shooting. Refused to talk
to the Mexican crew. Wanted toast and jam at three in the morning in the middle
of the Mexican Mountains. Crazy shit. Well, anyway, these fine folks at Background
put up with that and now they have us. I showed up four hours late on the first
day and no one seemed to care. They got more work done without me.
Background is
run by Antonio and Victor Zavalla, two brothers in their early thirties who
seem to be connected to every important playwright, dancer and actor in the
city. We've already been to the theatre, to a movie premiere and it looks like
we have tickets to the Mexican Academy Awards monday night. Just as long as
Geena Davis isn't there, It'll be great. Come to think of it, Maybe it would
be good if Geena Davis was there since we are five weeks away from shooting
and still don't have a leading lady. I haven't gotten sick from the food yet
(and I'm eating anything put in front of me), but my stomach is certainly in
knots about that. Thankfully our amazing executive producers seem to have a
crazy amount of faith in us, so we press on with an Oct 28th start date in front
of us.
Speaking of
acting, we have already fired our first person -- our casting person -- it seems
that she had a proclivity towards casting people who wear a lot of make up and
act like they're on a Telemundo soap opera. Not that those Mexican soap operas
are bad per say, Lord knows I love a buxom Mexican maid with a crazy libido
who is sleeping with the head of the house and his son as much as the next gringo,
but they just don't seem to be what were after.
Our new casting people see to have the right idea and we are moving along
briskly on that front. It is truly exciting to bring these very talented actors
to a wider audience. I think it will add an extra coolness to the movie...
Location scouting
is certainly the highlight so far. I don't think I will ever travel to another
foreign country without pretending to be scouting for a film. You get taken
to the most bizarre interesting places that would never be in any guide book.
In Mexico there are Lost Cities -- places that people live illegally, usually
squatting in buildings that collapsed in the 1985 earthquake and were deemed
unsafe. These people have no electricity or plumbing. Their roofs are made of
plastic and stray tin. In the evening fires rage from garbage cans. Stray dogs
wander aimlessly. Yet there is a certain amount of pride from the folks who
live here. They struggle everyday just to survive, but in their hearts they
are kind and decent people. No one has ever filmed in them, but we have spoken
to the community leader and they are letting us work here... Incredible. From
a visual stand point I am completely excited by the prospects of this movie.
Assuming I don't go on some Coppola nervous breakdown location craziness and
gain five hundred pounds and stay for three years, I really believe this movie
is going to be amazing. The colors,
the light. Every American movie that films here seems to miss the essence of
the city. The vitality. The energy. Forget
Geena Davis. This city is the real leading lady (just as long as it doesn't
want toast and jam at three in the morning)
So far the weather
is beautiful, the hotel bar over priced, the pool very warm (but never open
when we get back from work), only soft core porn on the hotel SpectaVision channel, the food delicious, the
Cohiba cigars from Cuba lovely, the people fascinating and funny and the general
vibe -- if I can use that word without anyone deleting my name from their e-mail
address book -- is muy bueno....
From a safety
point of view, we are shuttled everywhere, completely taken care of. I have
yet to take a stroll by myself (and probably won't) but I also think that everyone
will be okay as long as we continue to keep a low profile. However if we don't
get a leading lady soon I might be kidnapped by the executive producers and
held for ransom--- say the budget of the film.
Anyway, I miss you all, and encourage you to visit
and email.
With love,
Your Man in
Mexico--
Ricardo