Lights, Camera, Lockup

White Settlement jail used in leading film role

Struggling actors in search of a quick path to stardom — or at least a paying gig — might want to head out to White Settlement early next month.
 
There’s a catch, though. To get in this movie — “Stars and Bars,” filming in the Fort Worth suburb beginning in early August — the thespians likely will need to get themselves arrested. Hey, you have to suffer for your art.
 
A story in yesterday’s Star-Telegram reported that the jail will be used as the centerpiece for the film, made by a Grandbury film production company, Visionary Productions, so this is not exactly your big-budget sweeping Hollywood epic. In fact, the film’s budget comes in at $400,000, according to the report.
 
Income from the movie will provide a shot in the arm to White Settlement’s flagging municipal revenues. Randy Roberts, president of Visionary Productions, said he wanted to help out his old hometown — he grew up and graduated high school there — so good for him.
 
The jail, according to the report, caught the eye and ear of the production crew as they took a tour of the hoosegow. They liked the way it looked and sounded, particularly the “loud, clanging doors.”
 
Not that I have a lot of experience in the matter, but don’t pretty much all jails have loud clanging doors? It’s part of their ambience.
The movie’s plot centers about a couple of inmates, evidently distraught they’d been popped in a sting operation, who inject themselves with a deadly virus. Madcap mayhem ensues.
 
I see a new slogan in the city’s future.
 
White Settlement: Come for the jail, stay for the viral infection.
 
Bruce Felps owns and operates East Dallas Times, an online community news outlet serving the White Rock Lake area. He has never been in jail … almost.
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