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 News from Around Banderas Bay | October 2006 
Vallarta Residents Featured in Upcoming Movie
 PVNN
| | Gloria Harrison (R), who plays a member of the press who witnesses the assassination attempt, along with PV resident, Arden (L), who plays one of the President's Advisors. | 
| | Vallarta's Mara Castañon of Mara's Boutique in downtown Vallarta, (C) was Assistant to the Costume Designer and in charge of the stars' wardrobes. | 
| | The "Washington, D.C." assassination attempt on US President Ashton scene, shown in the film as archival news footage, was filmed in Puebla. |
Recently, Jorge Valdés Garcia and Sara Bachelder of Casting Valdésplaced several Vallarta residents as crew or featured extras in Columbia Picture's feature film "Vantage Point" starring Dennis Quaid, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Forest Whitaker, and Matthew Fox among others.
Casting Valdés was formed in 1999 by Jorge Valdés Garcia and Sara Bachelder after working together in TV Azteca's production "Marea Brava" which recorded its episodes in Puerto Vallarta from March through August 1999.
Today, Jorge Valdés Garcia and his staff are based in beautiful Puerto Vallarta, but offer casting and coordination of principal and background talent for TV, Film and Commercials to the greater Mexican Republic.
"Since we don't often have projects in Vallarta, as Vallarta residents ourselves, we are always pleased when we can place and feature some of our local talent and feel they are worthy of mention and also to give credit to the hardworking crew that call Vallarta their home," said Valdés.
"Though we were casting and filming Vantage Point primarily in Mexico City, and later in Puebla and Cuernavaca, we were quite pleased that Arden and the lovely Gloria Harrison made the trek just in time for us to place him as a featured extra, as one of the two 'President's Advisors' in a scene filmed in Puebla, which stood in for Washington, DC."
"Many of the scenes filmed in Puebla were continuations of parts of scenes shot earlier in locations in downtown Mexico City, but the political demonstrations backing Lopez Obrador made it impossible to return there to complete them and we were all happy to go to beautiful Puebla instead," Valdés added.
He continued, "The 'Washington, D.C.' scene will be seen in the film as archival news footage of an assassination attempt on US President Ashton (William Hurt) as he is leaving a building escorted by Dennis Quaid (secret service agent Barnes) the president's advisors, as well as other extras in roles as secret service agents, press, police, etc. Gloria appears as a member of the press that happens to be there as the events take place. An interesting trivia note is that the 'shooter' we cast for that scene is Luca Mosca, the Costume Designer for the film."
Jorge and Sara were also delighted that Vallarta resident Duncan Williams traveled to Mexico City to participate in a number of scenes filmed in the "Plaza Mayor of Salamanca" and street scene sets in downtown and southern Mexico City.
Duncan had been originally selected by the Director to be one of 30 "foreign heads of state," but an unexpected reduction in the number needed for that group resulted in him and five others being reassigned to other roles.
The aforementioned "Plaza Mayor" set was a very realistic scale reproduction of the actual plaza in Salamanca and was built in a large excavation across from the GranSur shopping center in southern Mexico City.
Vallarta's Mara Castañon (of Mara's Boutique in downtown Vallarta) was Assistant to the Costume Designer and was in charge of the stars' wardrobes. Another Vallarta resident on the Vantage Point crew: Architect Marcelo Del Rio, who was Art Director "A" for the film's Academy Award winning production designer, Brigitte Broch (Moulin Rouge, Romeo & Juliet.)
Vantage Point is the story of a presidential assassination attempt/terrorist attack at a World Summit in Spain told from the different points of view of those directly or indirectly involved, hence the name. With each view presented, the viewer discovers details quite unexpected from the last which may or not be what they appear to be or is part of the intrigue and deception.
Filmed on locations in Mexico over ten and a half weeks, six days a week from June through September 2006, Vantage Point is set for an October 2007 US theatrical release, was directed by the award winning director Pete Travis (Omagh), the Director of Photography was Amir Mokri (Lord of War, Joy Luck Club).
The movie was produced by Callum Greene (Lost in Translation), Neil Moritz (Fast and the Furious) and Tania Landau (Click) and co-produced by Ricardo and Arturo del Rio, (Nacho Libre, The Matador, Kill Bill, Puerto Vallarta Squeeze, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Deadly Swarm (Black Fire,) etc.
The film cost approximately 40 million dollars to make, though it was projected to cost twice that. The savings were made possible by the group of talented and experienced Mexican film professionals contracted through and managed by co-producers Ricardo and Arturo Del Rio, and those savings are what keeps Hollywood interested in filming in Mexico.
Casting Valdés had a hand in casting, coordinating and paying more than 21,000 extra's appearances and bit parts over the course of filming, representing a total positive economic impact of more than $10.5 million pesos divided among the participants.
According to Jorge, "On any given day we were responsible for between 200 and 1000 people, a few we had 2000 and we even had one day of 3000. While we enjoyed the adrenaline and challenge of Vantage Point, we are glad to be back home relaxing in Vallarta for the moment."
For more information about Casting Valdés or to sign up to be an extra or production assistant in future movies, visit MexicoCasting.com. For those interested in more complete credits or information on any of those mentioned above, search IMDB.com. |
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