Gun
Update: January 1, 2010
on the set Gun photo courtesy Val Kilmer |
on the set Gun |
on the set Streets of Blood photo courtesy Val Kilmer |
Val Kilmer spent his 50th birthday with his buddy Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson in Grand Rapids working on his latest project, Gun.
Jackson wrote the script for the under-$3-million movie he is helping to produce with his partner, Randall Emmet, of their production company Cheetah Vision Films. Also producing the film is George Furla, as well as Richard Jackson of Action Jackson Films. Jackson and Emmett also plan to shoot “a minimum” of three films in the state in 2010.
The film’s plot, which has morphed over time, focuses on the lucrative gun industry amid a recession-burdened economy.
Jackson stated, “Initially when I started the plot, it was a socially conscious story about how guns go from the manufacturing point to retail and purchased by law-abiding citizens and how they fall into the wrong hands. And what made it interesting and so relevant ... was the fact that companies like Smith & Wesson are up 125 percent in sales in the middle of a recession."
The cast, which originally was focused on Kilmer and Jackson, has evolved to feature numerous other characters.
Jackson asked Kilmer, who read the script, liked it, and said yes to the film the next day.
“I passed the Val Kilmer test,” Jackson said, grinning.
“When he read the script, he said, ‘Yo, this is good. You wrote this?’ He was surprised that I did it,” Jackson said.
Filming will take place at 11 locations throughout the city.. The film will be released to theaters in 2011.
Check out synopsis and poster in Film.
11-17-09 Variety Reports New Film starring Val Kilmer and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson
Gun to start production next month.
Georgia-based entrepeneur Richard Jackson, Emmet/Furla Films and Action Jackson Films have partnered up to make several films in the next year. Jackson will kick off the partnership with a commitment to fully fund Gun, a drama written by Cheetah Vision partner Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson (no relation to Richard Jackson), who will star with Val Kilmer.
Kilmer and Jackson met when they played partners in the 2009 crime drama Streets of Blood, also starring Sharon Stone. They became great friends while filming and Jackson reportedly presented Kilmer with a vintage car.
In Gun, Jackson and Kilmer play friends whose loyalties are tested when they get caught up in the world of illegal gun dealing. Chris Lighty, Justin Holochek and Richard Rhionda are executive producers.
The script grew out of the rapper-actor's curiosity about how guns go from being manufactured and shipped for legal use to somehow "falling into the hands of the wrong people," Jackson said. "It's a socially conscious theme that people aren't paying attention to."
Jesse Terro is set to direct the picture, which begins production next month. The film will be shot in Grand Rapids, MI where Kilmer recently filmed The Chaos Experiment.
Emmett/Furla Films is a producer on the Werner Herzog-directed Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, which stars Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes and Kilmer which opened at Toronto and hits theaters Nov. 20.