Tuolumne County man sees future in Red Hills movie set

Allen Royce has dreamed of rebuilding the Red Hills movie set since a fire destroyed it more than a decade ago.

The set was built by Universal Studios for the 1990 blockbuster “Back to the Future III” and was expected to serve other Western-themed movies made in the county for years to come.

But the Keystone Fire, which blackened 7,000 acres around Chinese Camp on Aug. 12, 1996, made sure that wasn’t the case.
   

That day was a sad one for Royce. Not only was the set burned to the ground, but he and his wife, Diane, lost a fifth-wheel camping trailer in the blaze. Royce had been serving as the caretaker of the site at the time.

“It was pretty devastating,” he said. “That set was beautiful. It was up to code and would have passed building inspections. Most of the buildings were complete, functional buildings.”

Royce, a member of the Tuolumne County Film Commission, thinks a new Western-themed set will help propel the county to its former glory as a destination for Hollywood movie makers.

Movie stars may be hard to come by in Tuolumne County now, but that wasn’t always the case. The county’s film resume is impressive, according to data from the Tuolumne County Film Commission, having been the site for several big-name movies, including 1943’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” starring Gary Cooper, “The Big Country” starring Gregory Peck (1958) and “Unforgiven,” starring Clint Eastwood, winner of the Oscars for best picture in 1992.

The county also once regularly provided the outdoor backdrop for a number of Western television series, including “The Lone Ranger,” “Rawhide,” “Gunsmoke,” “Bonanza,” and “Little House on the Prairie.”

But now, things have changed. The last major film to be made in Tuolumne County was 1994’s “Bad Girls,” starring Drew Barrymore. That film had used the Red Hills set.

Royce spearheaded an effort to get the set built again shortly after the fire. His proposed Red Hills Movie Ranch would have sat on 120 acres just east of the old set. In 1998, he recommended building a set that would be made up of functional buildings and include a Western theme park, with displays, museums and other attractions.

The old set, located on private ranch land, had not been open to the public.

Royce’s initial effort to rebuild fizzled out, he said, due to a lack of support in the community. He surmised that, due to the county’s long film history, people may have taken it for granted that filmmakers would always be clamoring to shoot in Tuolumne County.

“This has been such a film-rich county — there’s always been some sort of film here — that people may have thought they were going to be here anyway,” he said.

Now, according to Royce, several local business people are supportive of the effort, as are the Friends of the Tuolumne County Film Commission, which could be charged with fundraising duties once plans are fleshed out.

Royce said films are a huge benefit to the local economy. He estimated that $3 million came into the county when a feature film was shot here for just two weeks.

At this point, Royce’s focus is on securing 70 acres for the set, a sound stage and theme park from a Red Hills landowner. Royce estimated the project, including the land purchase, would cost $4.5 million.

That money has not yet been found. Nonetheless, Royce said there are a variety of ways the project could be paid for — including grants — as well as a number of ways in which the land could be owned, likely by a non-profit organization.

“We don’t care,” he said. “We just want to build.”
  

Film Commission President Jerry Day thinks there’s some merit to Royce’s idea.    

He noted that scouts for the 2007 Western film “3:10 to Yuma,” starring Russell Crowe, almost selected the Red Hills as the spot to film it, but, in the end, selected New Mexico.

Day suspects that if the Red Hills set had still been around, Tuolumne County might have won out, especially since the Railtown 1897 State Historic Park is nearby. He also noted that, unlike New Mexico, California at the time didn’t offer a tax break for filmmakers.

Lori Balton, of Venice, who was involved in scouting Tuolumne County for the film, said the sticking point wasn’t so much the lack of a set. Instead it was the tax incentives offered by New Mexico.

“It’s all about making money now,” Balton said. “You guys visually have so much to offer there that it would normally be enough of a draw. And it almost was.”

Since Balton’s excursion to Tuolumne County, California has passed a tax incentive of 20 to 25 percent for those who film in the state.