FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Northwest Arkansas’ film industry has seen some big projects come through to shoot in the region, such as a season for the show "True Detective" and a movie called "What Happens Later" starring Meg Ryan.
One movie called "Sovereign" wrapped up shooting in Northwest Arkansas last month. It’s loosely based on the true story of the 2010 West Memphis, Arkansas shootings.
"We have Nick Offerman, Jacob Tremblay, and Dennis Quaid as our three stars of the film," the film’s producer, Nick Moceri, said. "Nick and Jacob play father and son, sovereign citizens, Jerry and Joe Kane, who are based on true characters. Dennis Quaid plays a police chief who is inspired by sort of other law enforcement people involved in this story."
45-year-old Jerry Jane and his 16-year-old son, Joseph, considered themselves "sovereign citizens," meaning they didn’t believe they had to follow any laws.
When they were pulled over by West Memphis officers Brandon Paudert and Bill Evans in May of 2010, Jerry attacked one of them. His son then started shooting an assault rifle at them.
Both officers died in the exchange of gunfire.
Jerry and Joseph were killed in a second shootout when other officers caught up to them in a Walmart parking lot.
"What inspired me was just the subculture of sovereign citizens," Christian Swegal, the film’s director and screenplay writer, explained. "It was just one of those crimes that when I first started researching about it, just really felt like it was ripe for a sort of movie."
Guns are a big part of the story, which is why the production crew went to great lengths to keep safety airtight, especially after the deadly shooting on the set of "Rust."
"From day one, our goal was to be as buttoned up and go over and above any protocols," Moceri emphasized. "So, part of that was hiring an experienced armorer who's licensed with all of the prop houses, who's got experience. Also working with a stunt coordinator who makes sure that our actors stay safe."
While it would be easy to film this story in Hollywood, Moceri says he sees how resources supporting productions in Northwest Arkansas are growing.
"There's been an incredible sort of boom of production here in Northwest Arkansas," he said. "[With] companies like Rock Hill [and] Christopher Crane, the film commissioner, I think there's just been a lot of things that have filmed here. And so we felt like there was a good crew and resource base and just a great variety of locations to film and tell the story."
Swegal said the movie is not about glorifying the crimes of the father and son, but rather showing how personal tragedies in Jerry Kane’s life may have been what pushed him into delusional beliefs.
"A lot of times, there's something really real that drove them to that belief system, whether it was, you know, they lost their home in the housing crisis, or they've had problems with the IRS, or they're just in poverty," Swegal said.
That's why the film’s creatives are motivated to show how these paths intersected, leading to a tragedy.
"When audiences see this film, I hope they take away empathy," Morceri said. "I hope that they can open themselves to seeing other people's perspectives. Other people's perspectives don't justify bad behavior, or criminal activity, or anything like that. Like, that's not a part of this message. But it's just understanding where and why do these lives fall apart and intersect and collide?"
"Sovereign" is set to be released by the end of this year.
The Arkansas legislature set aside $9 million this fiscal year to incentivize productions to film in the state.
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