GILLETTE, WYOMING S GILLETTE NEWS RECORD
WHAT TO DO
Cowboy State is no
stranger to Hollywood
By JONATHAN GALLARDO
NEWS RECORD WRITER
jgallardo@gillettenewsrecord.net
When you hear the words
Wyoming and movies,
the first thing that pops into
your head would probably be
Westerns. After all, it is the
Cowboy State.
While its had its fair share of
Westerns, Wyomings landscape
and scenery have made it a
beautiful backdrop for movies of
all genres.
During the first half of the
20th century, Wyoming was a
popular place for filmmakers,
with 32 movies filmed in the
Cowboy State before 1940,
including 1930s The Big Trail,
John Waynes first starring role.
But as the Western declined
in popularity, so did Wyomings
place in the film industry.
Despite this, Wyoming has
shown up in several films the
past few decades.
Shane, a 1953 movie about
a gunfighter caught in a con-
flict between a cattleman and
settlers, was nominated for
five Academy Awards and is
regarded by many to be the best
film made in Wyoming, said
Walt Farmer, who compiled
Wyoming: A History of Film
and Video in the 20th Century.
Theres lots of flubs and
mistakes in the movie and most
people just flat-out overlook
them. They dont care, he said.
Shane is the film that peo-
ple from other countries most
identify with Wyoming, he said,
and hes given many tours to
Japanese tourists anxious to find
out every detail they can about
the filming of Shane.
Perhaps the most iconic
moment in Wyoming movie
history happens in the climax
of Steven Spielbergs Close
Encounters of the Third Kind
at Devils Tower, an almost alien-
like rock formation in the north-
eastern corner of the state.
According to the Wyoming
Office of Tourism, Spielberg
wanted an unusual piece of
topography for the science
fiction flick. Joe Alves, who
worked as a location scout for
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A trio of tiny Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs, who are modeled
after cowboys, walk the Oregon Butte in the Red Desert in
a scene from the movie The Good Dinosaur. Although an-
imated, the film used accurate depictions of the Wyoming
landscape to set its prehistoric tale.
a number of Spielbergs films,
visited landmarks as far away as
India, but Devils Tower stood
out among them all.
Nothing that I had seen,
whether you go to Zion or
Bryce nothing comes close
to seeing this thing. This incred-
ible shape, he said. When
(Spielberg) got here he was so
taken by the possibilities of
what this would do to his film.
In 1978, parts of Mammoth
Hot Springs in Yellowstone
National Park served as Spocks
home planet of Vulcan in Star
Trek: The Motion Picture. The
1997 film Starship Troopers
was filmed at Hells Half Acre in
central Wyoming.
Clint Eastwood has starred in
not one, but two movies filmed
in Wyoming: The Outlaw Josey
Wales and Any Which Way
You Can.
Wyoming also played the part
of Russia in Rocky IV. Much
of Rockys training scenes were
filmed in Jackson Hole, and the
mountainous terrain of Siberia
was replicated in the Grand
Tetons.
Some scenes in the 2013
movie Nebraska, which
received six Oscar nomina-
tions, was filmed in the town of
Buffalo, Wyoming.
According to the Casper Star-
Tribune, director Alexander
Payne spent a year looking for
the right locations, and the town
of Buffalo fit the mold for the
cchwyo.org
PAGE A7
idea plastered in Paynes head,
said producer Albert Berger.
And its not just live-action
movies that have been filmed in
Wyoming. A lot of the scenery
in Pixars The Good Dinosaur
was taken straight from the
Ranch Life Junkin Joes
Cowboy State.
While researching for the Booth B285 Mezzanine
movie, the crew only took trips
to Jackson and Yellowstone,
but it also used U.S. Geological
Survey topography maps,
Google Earth and computers
to compose other images,
including the Bighorn National
Forest, the Thunder Basin
National Grasslands and the
Red Desert.
Sharon Calahan, director
of photography and lighting
on the film, said director Pete
Sohn wanted a wide variety of
terrain, including mountains,
deserts, valleys and plains.
Quentin Tarantino filmed
parts of Django Unchained,
which starred Leonardo
DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx and
Samuel L. Jackson and was
nominated for five Oscars, in
Jackson. He had to film a scene
in Mammoth Lake, California,
but that location wasnt getting
enough snow.
Funny enough, Wyoming
has that, Tarantino said in an
interview with the Wyoming
Film Office.
When asked about Wyoming,
Tarantino said it was a fantastic
place to shoot.
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