Director Matt Reeves Talks About "Let Me In" - Filmed in New Mexico

MTV2 Interview:

Matt Reeves knows he has a target on his back. The director admits as much roughly two minutes into a conversation about his upcoming film, "Let Me In." That's what happens when your movie: A) takes on the pop-cultural theme-du-jour of vampires, and B) remakes a beloved flick that pretty much everyone agrees is as perfect as genre filmmaking gets.

After helming the inventive disaster adventure "Cloverfield," Reeves built up the Hollywood cred to buy himself some breathing room for his tale of childhood alienation, improbable yet vital friendship and, yup, the bloodsucking undead. Based on a 2008 Swedish film, Reeves' adaptation (due in October) shifts the story to the bleak winter landscape of New Mexico but maintains the original's horror-genre elements. We're so pumped about the film's potential that we've tagged Reeves as one of our 10 to Watch in 2010 — the folks in the movie industry we expect big things from in the next 12 months.

During some downtime on set, Reeves gave MTV News a call to talk about reworking a cult classic, contending with other vampire franchises and what's coming down the line this year and beyond for the director.

MTV: Is "Let Me In" a remake or a reimagining? What are you keeping from the original and what are you changing?

Matt Reeves: It's very much an Americanization of the tale that John Ajvide Lindqvist tells. The film touched me. And I read the book, which he also wrote, and it moved me too. It reminded me so much of my own childhood in certain ways. It's so much about that period of preadolescence, that feeling of being a child and of being bullied, the difficulties of growing up. It's such a beautiful coming-of-age story, in addition to being such a terrific genre story. One of the things I really wanted to do was find my own way into the story while still being very, very reverent to the beautiful film and to the wonderful story that they created. And so the story in many ways follows the same trajectory. I really wanted to put you, even more so, into the point of view of the boy and understand his childhood as vividly as it comes across in the book.

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Trailer for Crazy Heart - Filmed in New Mexico!

Crazy Heart, starring Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and in New Mexico, is coming soon to a theater near you. Trailer looks great. . .

Variety Review of Men Who Stare at Goats

Filmed partially in New Mexico, The Men Who Stare at Goats has already hit the screen in limited release. Good, thoughtful review from Variety.

"A serendipitous marriage of talent in which all hearts seem to beat as one, "The Men Who Stare at Goats" takes Jon Ronson's book about "the apparent madness at the heart of U.S. military intelligence" and fashions a superbly written loony-tunes satire, played by a tony cast at the top of its game. Recalling many similar pics, from "Dr. Strangelove" to "Three Kings," and the screwy so-insane-it-could-be-true illogic of "Catch-22," this is upscale liberal movie-making with a populist touch, in Coen brothers style. Enthusiastic welcome at Venice, likely to be echoed at Toronto, should translate into friendly biz Stateside in November."

To read the entire article, click here.

"Made in New Mexico" Films to Show at New Mexico State Fair

The 2009 New Mexico State Fair in association with the New Mexico Film Museum will present a free-to-fairgoers, made-in-New Mexico film series during this year’s 17-day run of the fair.

“Filmmaking has been a part of New Mexico’s history for longer than most people know,” said State Fair General Manager Craig Swagerty. “The last six or seven years have seen exponential growth in our state’s film industry, and we thought a great way to celebrate our present success in movie-making would be to revisit a history of filmmaking in New Mexico.”

The inaugural New Mexico State Fair Film Retrospective will feature 33 films filmed in the state over the past 100 years. There will be no charge for the films, which are scheduled for three showings per day, 10:30 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., during the 17-day fair which runs September 11-27, 2009. All films will be shown in the 300-seat auditorium in the African American Performing Arts Center.

“The State Fair offers the perfect audience for a film series dedicated to New Mexico films,” said Film Museum Director Sharon Maloof. “These are films that many New Mexicans have probably never seen and maybe did not know they were filmed in our state.” Among films scheduled for the made-in-New Mexico retrospective are “Salt of the Earth,” “Red Dawn,” “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” “Young Guns,” “Silverado,” “City Slickers,” “The Milagro Beanfield War,” “Independence Day,” “3:10 to Yuma” and “No Country for Old Men.” Sponsors for the film program, in addition to the State Fair and the Film Museum, are the Carlsbad Caverns Guadalupe Mountain Association; the Albuquerque Film Office; and IATSE Local 480, Film and Television Technicians of New Mexico. Programming for the series is through courtesy of Julesworks Releasing.

Visit www.nmfilmmuseum.org or www.exponm.com for the film schedule.

Gamer Opening September 4

Remember when they blocked off a lot of downtown Albuquerque and blew a lot of things up? That was for the filming of the movie "Gamer" (it was known as "The Game" back then). We'll your fair city will be hitting the screen on September 4! Be sure to check it out!

Trailer for Will Eisner's Spirit

Big, badass movie filmed in Albuquerque. Coming to theaters December 25! Based on the comic book series by Will Eisner. From the makers of 300. Beautiful girls, dangerous men who fall for beautiful girls, beautiful girls who are tougher than the tough men. Love it!