Gerard Butler Brings His ‘Game’ to Studios

Gerard Butler Brings His ‘Game’ to Studios


Albuquerque Journal Online


Friday, 31 August 2007


Written by Dan Mayfield



There must be something about the movie “300” and Albuquerque.

First, we hear that “300” producer and writer Frank Miller will come to the Duke City to direct his new film, “The Spirit.” Now, we hear that one of the stars of “300,” Gerard Butler, who was King Leonidas in the film, will be here to film his new film “Game.”

What’s bringing them here? The Albuquerque Studios, said “Game” filmmaker Brian Taylor.

“The studios are large enough. They’re like 58 feet tall, bigger than the studios in L.A. we did our last movie at. We need the space to be safe and we can do it. “It’s a crazy action.” His last movie was the action thriller “Crank.” This movie, however, is an action flick with lots of explosions, car chases, bullets flying and fight scenes.

“It’s a lot about control. It’s set five minutes in the future about a guy who’s wrongly in prison and needs to get back to his wife and daughters,” said Taylor. The crew scouted the state last week and found just what it was looking for, Taylor said.

“New Mexico is a beautiful place and between Albuquerque and Santa Fe and the booming film industry, we were down there last week and we scouted, we were surprised at all the locations that looked West Coast, or East Coast, or urban.”

But it was the giant Albuquerque Studios complex that piqued his interest. Cool. Blowing stuff up always makes for a good film.

Producer Skip Williamson from Lakeshore Entertainment said, “We did a little bit of scouting around and every 20 minutes there was a different landscape and that caters to what we do as filmmakers.” Plus there’s lots of room to blow stuff up.

The production crew will start setting up shop at Albuquerque Studios soon, and in a loft Downtown. Filming will be from Nov. 5 to Feb. 5, though the producers will be here by mid-September. “We have lofts Downtown. We don’t want to tell you where, ’cause all the girls will chase Skip around,” said Taylor.


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