Mark Wahlberg’s ‘Flight Risk’ a glimpse of Las Vegas’ Hollywood future

Mark Wahlberg’s “Flight Risk” takes place entirely in Alaska, with its unforgiving terrain and towering, snow-covered mountain peaks. There’s even a moose.

The vast majority of the movie was filmed in Las Vegas — with a couple of days at the Mesquite airport — during what was, at the time, the hottest month on record.

“I keep saying, you know, you could have a movie set anywhere and shoot it in Vegas,” Wahlberg says.

The actor bought a $14.5 million home in Summerlin in August 2022 and moved his family to the valley. Before the calendar turned the page to September, he was talking about turning Las Vegas into “Hollywood 2.0.”

Those declarations caught the attention of Howard Hughes Holdings and Sony Entertainment, who pledged to build a sprawling production studio in Summerlin. UNLV and Birtcher Development — and, from August until earlier this month, Warner Bros. Discovery — backed a studio in the southwest valley.

“This is definitely proof of concept,” Wahlberg says, with “Flight Risk” showing that Las Vegas has what it takes to create movies, even when those movies have nothing to do with Las Vegas.

“With technology,” he adds, “there isn’t anything you can’t do.”

Tax incentives upended the business

The idea of movie studios in Nevada is nothing new, according to Kim Spurgeon, director of the Nevada Film Office.

“I tell people that, if I had a nickel for every time someone said that they were going to build a studio in Las Vegas, I wouldn’t be a millionaire,” she says. “But I’d have well over a dollar.”

The main thing standing in the way of that, at least recently, has been tax incentives.

Ever since Louisiana turned production on its head in 1992 by introducing a system of tax rebates for filming there, movie and TV projects have proven they’ll go just about anywhere if the price is right. Nevada’s current incentive system rarely fits that bill.

With the exception of “Casino,” which spent 21 weeks in the valley in late 1994 and early 1995, productions that film in Las Vegas tend to shoot in locations that can’t be faked elsewhere, then head back to the tax-friendly confines of some other state.

In one of the most glaring examples, “Last Vegas” — the 2013 bachelor party comedy starring Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline — spent 10 days filming around Las Vegas, including scenes at Aria. But to shoot a roughly five-minute scene set in the hotel’s Haze nightclub, it was cheaper to build a replica in Atlanta, where the rest of the movie was shot, than to stay longer and film in the real one.

That’s why “Flight Risk” is believed to be the only major motion picture in the tax incentive era to film in Las Vegas despite not being set in Las Vegas. Mel Gibson, “Flight Risk’s” director, was involved in what may have been the only other modern instance of Las Vegas standing in for another city.

In April 1998, the westbound lanes of the 215 Beltway between Pecos Road and Windmill Lane were closed for two weeks to film a chase scene involving Gibson’s Martin Riggs and Danny Glover’s Roger Murtaugh for “Lethal Weapon 4.” The roadway was supposed to be part of the L.A. freeway system, but look closely in the background and you’ll see Luxor.

As an actor, it would make life easier for Wahlberg if he were able to roll out of bed and head to a nearby studio. But as a producer — which he’s been on everything from “Entourage” and “Boardwalk Empire” to “The Family Plan,” his Apple TV+ movie that filmed in Las Vegas in 2023 — Wahlberg has thoughts about what the valley has to offer as a production hub.

“Endless talent pool, for one,” he says. “You have all of the elements there. You have the mountains. You have the desert. You can utilize those backdrops for pretty much anything.”

Faking Alaska in the desert

In “Flight Risk,” opening Jan. 24, a mob accountant named Winston (Topher Grace) is holed up in the Igloo Motel when he’s arrested by U.S. Deputy Marshal Madolyn Harris (Michele Dockery). Once Winston agrees to testify against his boss, Harris just has to get him out of the Alaskan wilderness. First stop: Anchorage, a roughly 90-minute chartered flight away.

That’s where pilot Daryl Booth (Wahlberg) comes in. Even though “Flight Risk’s” twist is given away in its trailers, let’s just say things aren’t exactly what they seem.

All but about seven minutes of the action takes place inside the small aircraft, so the production team modified a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan and made its nose and windows removable for easy access during filming. At LMG Touring & Entertainment, just south of Town Square, the plane was placed on a 10-foot gimbal, a motion platform that works much like a mechanical bull to replicate the tilt, roll and other movements of flying.

A rig with six 8K cameras was hung on a 30-foot line beneath a helicopter as it flew over the proper frigid landscapes. To complete the illusion, that footage was then played back at LMG’s studio on 1,830 LED panels that surrounded the plane and its numerous windows on three sides.

The space wasn’t designed for movies, although it’s accommodated filming, including the 2021 Super Bowl commercial for Uber Eats that saw Mike Myers and Dana Carvey revive their “Wayne’s World” characters.

“We’re one of the few purpose-built rehearsal spaces on the West Coast,” says Craig Mitchell, LMG’s managing director.

The facility is where bands and singers go to prep their tours, and it’s big enough to fit most arena stages. In the past year, it’s been used by The Killers, Usher, Dua Lipa, Lainey Wilson, Snoop Dogg and Lenny Kravitz.

But with Las Vegas lacking the type of massive soundstages promised in the various studio plans, and with some serious height needed for the rigged-up Cessna, LMG was the best — or at least the tallest — option available.

Embracing new technology

Surprisingly, “Flight Risk” wasn’t the first film in which a Las Vegas-based movie star was confined to a vehicle in front of LED panels during a local shoot.

About a third of the 2023 film “Sympathy for the Devil” involves Joel Kinnaman driving Nicolas Cage around Las Vegas in a Chevy Impala. Those scenes were filmed inside Vū Las Vegas. The facility, near the intersection of Paradise and Sunset Roads three miles from LMG, has a permanent LED setup like the one “Flight Risk” brought in. Industrial Light and Magic developed the technology, known as a Volume, for the first season of “The Mandalorian.”

“For your talent, it’s a lot easier to convince them to come in from 9 to 5 into an air-conditioned building where it’s 73 degrees when it’s 115 out,” says Chuck Akin, Vū Las Vegas general manager. “And you’re filming a night movie during the day. That’s a nice enticement there.”

“Sympathy for the Devil” was the first movie filmed at Vū. The facility also has hosted the most recent season of Netflix’s “Queer Eye,” a “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” spot starring Peyton and Eli Manning and WrestleMania promos with Dwayne Johnson, Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. “Flight Risk’s” production offices were housed there, and Cage is expected to shoot another movie there later this year.

By shooting the background footage on Las Vegas streets and playing it on the LED tiles while filming, everyone on set was able to see what the finished product would look like. The actors were placed inside the environment and could react to things like turns and bumps in real-time. Perhaps most importantly, a digital stage saves valuable time.

“You can film 24 hours a day if you need to,” LMG’s Mitchell says, “and you don’t have to worry if the sun is setting outside or if it’s raining.”

The fast-paced filming such a setup allows doesn’t offer much downtime on set.

“We shot the whole movie in 22 days, so it was really, like, down, dirty, gritty,” Wahlberg says. “We’re shooting page after page after page. I like that.”

“I have the most fun when the cameras are rolling,” the two-time Oscar nominee adds. “So with a schedule like that, that was that condensed, we were pretty much shooting all of the time. I had a blast.”

It’s in the Legislature’s hands

After failing to be brought to a vote during the 2023 Legislative session, proposals to revamp the state’s film tax credits, a necessary measure for regular filming and a studio to be financially feasible, are expected to be introduced during the 2025 session that begins Feb. 3.

Vū’s Akin only sees the benefits of more studio space and more filming in Las Vegas, if a more enticing tax system were to come out of the session.

“I like to say ‘when it happens,’ because it will happen,” he says. “When it goes through, it will be good for everybody.”

LMG’s Mitchell supports the idea of increased filming, as well.

“We would welcome a larger (production) community to be built in Vegas,” he says, “and we would like to be a big part of that.”

As for Wahlberg, he’s optimistic that a more competitive film tax credit will pass the Legislature, allowing Las Vegas to become a viable location for film and TV production.

“I really feel like the business is prime for a new hub to create all this opportunity,” Wahlberg says, “And I think it will become one of the most important industries in the state of Nevada.”

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567.