Governor Bill Richardson Announces The Men Who Stare at Goats to Film in New Mexico
Contact: New Mexico Film Office (505) 476-5600SANTA FE - Governor Bill Richardson today announced the action-comedy, The Men Who Stare at Goats, will film in New Mexico. The movie stars Academy Award winner George Clooney (Michael Clayton, Syriana), Oscar nominee Jeff Bridges (Iron Man, Seabiscuit), Ewan McGregor (Moulin Rouge, Blackhawk Down), and two-time Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey (American Beauty, The Usual Suspects)
The film, currently in production in Puerto Rico, will begin filming in New Mexico in mid November. It will shoot in Albuquerque, Alamogordo, Roswell and Zia Pueblo, and plans to employ approximately 175 New Mexican crew members. The Smoke House Pictures project was developed at BBC Films by Paul Lister in association with Alison Owen of Ruby Films. Produced by Lister, Clooney and Grant Heslov, the film is directed by Academy Award nominee Heslov (Good Night, and Good Luck) from a screenplay by Peter Straughan, inspired by unbelievable-but-true revelations in the best-selling, non-fiction book The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson. Barbara A. Hall, James A. Holt and Alison Owen are executive producers. Set in the early days of the American invasion of Iraq, Clooney plays enigmatic operative Lyn Cassady, a man on a mission so secret even the U.S. Army doesn’t know about it. McGregor is Bob Wilton, a local news reporter for a mid-western paper who has dispatched himself to the front lines of the war to prove his manhood to an ex-wife who no longer cares. Bob follows Lyn into the heart of enemy territory, as the Special Forces veteran provides the young journalist with background on an experimental army unit that was conceived for the purpose of ending war as we know it. Utilizing psychic powers and the belief that men don’t really want to kill each other, the New Earth Army was formed and trained by psi-ops legend, Bill Django (Bridges) – only to be undermined and ultimately destroyed by the petty jealousies of one of its own, Larry Hooper (Spacey). This will be the 110th major film or TV production to shoot in New Mexico since Governor Bill Richardson took office, resulting in close to $1.9 billion dollars in economic impact.
