PRODUCTION STARTS ON WESTERN APPALOOSA (October 15, 2007)

http://www.newline.com/pdf/press_releases/10_15_07appaloosa.pdf

Appaloosa
PRODUCTION STARTS ON WESTERN APPALOOSA
SANTA FE, NM (October 15, 2007)—New Line Cinema and Groundswell
Productions announce the start of production on the feature film Appaloosa,
starring Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Renée Zellweger, and Jeremy Irons. Harris
is directing the film, and co-wrote the screenplay with Robert Knott. Producers
are Harris, Knott, and Ginger Sledge (Miss Congeniality, Lords of Dogtown).
Executive producers are Michael London (Sideways, The Illusionist) and Cotty
Chubb (Eve’s Bayou, The Crow) through London’s Groundswell Productions,
which is co-financing with New Line. The western is based on the novel
Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker (author of the Spenser detective series).

Appaloosa is the second film directed by Harris, following his directorial debut on
Pollock, which won actress Marcia Gay Harden a Best Supporting Actress Oscar
and earned Harris a nomination for Best Actor.

Principal photography began October 1 on locations in and around Santa Fe,
New Mexico. The talented behind-the-scenes team includes cinematographer
Dean Semler (Dances with Wolves, The Road Warrior, Apocalypto); production
designer Waldemar Kalinowski (Leaving Las Vegas); editor Kathryn Himoff
(Pollock, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants); costume designer David
Robinson (Pollock); and casting director Jeanne McCarthy (Eternal Sunshine of
the Spotless Mind, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada).

Appaloosa, a town miles from anywhere, is struggling to survive so its copper
mines can reopen. It’s 1882, and lawmen Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and Everett
Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) are hired to bring order to the community—and to stop
renegade rancher Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) and his string of violent men
from terrorizing townsfolk. The two infamous lawmen quickly bring order to the
struggling town. But when the bold, beguiling widow Allison French (Renée
Zellweger) steps off the train in Appaloosa, complications arise.

Issues of love, trust, and self-identity come to the fore as Cole and Hitch fight for
the town’s future, each other, and the woman who comes between them, in this
humanistic western. Humor, action, and romance add to the multi-layered
relationships.

Says Harris, who found the novel and optioned it, “The reason I wanted to do
Appaloosa is to make something that’s beautiful and human, and reflects my
deep appreciation of being alive. It’s about friendship.”

Appaloosa is filming in remote locations surrounding Santa Fe, including the
multi-hued sandstone cliffs of Abiquiu that Georgia O’Keeffe painted, along the
Chama River where the autumn cottonwoods are turning golden, crossing the
Rio Grande, and on Tom Ford’s Cerro Pelon Ranch in Galisteo. The production
then moves to Austin, Texas, for a climactic shootout. Principal photography is
scheduled to wrap in late November. The movie is being overseen at New Line
Cinema by Toby Emmerich and production executives Sam Brown and Michael
Disco.
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