LadyValentine

Hurricane Katrina pushed the movie industry into Shreveport, and an early sign it was staying was the rise of the Louisiana Wave Studio.
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The facility was constructed in late 2005 at the Sealy-Slack Industrial Park for "The Guardian." The U.S. Coast Guard drama was forced to relocate from the New Orleans area to northwest Louisiana after a similar wave tank, nearly finished, became unusable.

It is with a coincidental twist, therefore, that Nu Image/Millennium Films was filming an opening scene for a post-Katrina New Orleans cop drama at the wave tank facility last week.

The movie is "Streets of Blood" (aka "Microwave Park"), a gritty tale of law enforcement corruption starring Val Kilmer and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson.

"I've played an FBI agent twice, but I've never played a cop, which I'm kind of proud of," Kilmer said. "I've been saving it up."

The star — who's gained fame in "The Doors," "Heat," "Batman Forever" and "Top Gun" — took the role because he finally found a cop character he wanted to play.

Kilmer stars as a detective crusading against gangs, corrupt law enforcement and drug trafficking. The movie is generally about honor, law and violations thereof. Its backdrop is post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.

"This story takes place in a kind of the hell that these innocent people were exposed to," Kilmer said. "I don't know a lot of stories that are like this. That is just very specifically about cops and DEA and FBI that are bad. We state it very plainly, and it's a fact that is self-evident if you have any common sense about the billions and billions of dollars that are made in the drug trafficking."

50 Cent, who goes by Curtis Jackson on the set, plays the detective's new partner. He's a good cop struggling in a world where drugs translate into an easy payoff.

"When I first read the script, I didn't know who I wanted to play," said Jackson, who was the first to sign on to the project. Movies offer the rap star a chance to be something else than just his hit records. "You can display vulnerability and different portions of your actual character, and have people appreciate it."

Randall Emmett, a producer on "Streets of Blood," believes that Jackson's music world success will translate into a successful film career. Two of Jackson's movies — "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" and "Home of the Brave" — have been released and the third, a Nu Image/Millennium Films project with Robert De Niro called "Righteous Kill," should be released later this year.

"People don't know what they are in store for," Emmett said. He believes pairing Jackson with Kilmer might intrigue audiences. "The intensity and the drama is all there between the two guys."
Spotlighting Louisiana

Kilmer first took interest in the project because it was set in New Orleans. (He worked on Tony Scott's "Déjà Vu" there in early 2006. The $80 million project jumpstarted New Orleans' recovering movie industry.)

Kilmer's character in "Streets of Blood" is a New Orleans native who loves the city.

"I really love that and am actually trying to add more to it," Kilmer said. He compares New Orleans to his home near Santa Fe. "Where I live, it's tri-cultural like New Orleans is multicultural, and really proud and responsible for a lot of originality. There is no place like New Orleans. I have never met anyone in Louisiana — I've been here a dozen times — that I didn't like or I didn't share a kind of pride."

Director Charles Winkler and producers are hoping their movie — while entertaining and whether fictional or not — will help keep the public eye on New Orleans.

"New Orleans was a unique and special place that was damaged in the most indelible way by Katrina," said Winkler, who was wearing hip waders to trudge through the wave tank set during a night shoot.

The 750,000-gallon tank held a flooded New Orleans street made dire by a downed utility pole, a sunken car and a shopping cart filled with water jugs and coolers.

Through the lens of "Streets of Blood," this post-Katrina New Orleans looks dangerous, gloomy, but not without hope.

Kilmer's character, though surrounded by crime and corruption, won't give up.

"And he's doing everything in his power to make sure that it comes back to its former greatness," Winkler said.
Why Shreveport?

Since "Streets of Blood" is Nu Image/Millennium Films' seventh consecutive film shot in the Shreveport area, shooting here made sense. Producers could keep costs down, draw from a familiar crew base, and take advantage of Shreveport's infrastructure and hospitality.

Producer Matt O'Toole, who has extensive experience shooting in England and elsewhere, said city officials and police have been very approachable about securing permission to shoot at a school, trailer park and government facilities.

"I've been able to shoot in the courthouse, which I've never heard of," O'Toole said.

Emmett said "Streets of Blood" focuses more on crime than it does New Orleans.

"If it was solely a Katrina-driven movie, then that would be another story," Emmett said.

With good location choices, creative camera angles and some crafty set designs, the crew should be able to make Shreveport double for New Orleans, something that was done for the FX miniseries "Thief."

"It's the fact that there are a lot of different looks here," Winkler said. "That there is a water tank in Shreveport is a bonus.

"Just about the only thing you couldn't shoot here is 'Baywatch.'"

In other news:

50 Cent gives Val Kilmer a better ride

Bragging about your ride to Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson is probably an invitation for ridicule. But for Val Kilmer, a little on-set chat about a sweet car worked out just fine.
"I bought him a car. I gave him an Impala," 50 Cent said, flashing a big grin. "He was talking so highly of this GTO, and I was like, 'I got some toys, I got some pieces around.' I gave him something so he could play."
Jokingly, Kilmer said the gift has led to script changes in their cop drama, "Streets of Blood."
"I've tried to put it into a couple of the scenes that my character is obsessed with helicopters," Kilmer said. "We'll see how it goes."

Soruce:

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Why In The Hell Would You Let Your Fingers Type Such Absurdity? - Me

Hunger4More

props 50

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R3LAPS3

MS DIOR

I Can't Wait To See This Movie

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CHR!SSY:TH3 OR!G!N@L..HATING IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY....FUCK YOU! ;)

GSoldier813

sounds like its gonna be good......i can't wait for Righteous Kill w/ al pacino, robert dinero and 50 cent......thas a good look

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Hakaroodi

yo can't wait for these 2 followin' films from Fif.. and then of course "The Dance" with Fif Nicholas Cage and Mark Wahlberg..

BooBoo

thats cool im going to watch it