I hate to see something like this happen, because all films should have smooth sailing, but well I figured you might be curious about it. Two reports on this with slightly different information from each!

Don't know if you've heard yet, but there was some sort of mishap today
in filming at Cook's Ranch on "The Wild, Wild West." Apparently, a
scene calling for explosions and the destruction of a small town went
awry, and fire trucks were called in from all around.

The local news just ran a piece on it, without explaining exactly what
had happened, but it looked like whatever they blew up had burned
completely to the ground. They may need to rebuild a little, if they
still need any of that. No one was hurt, but neighbors were startled
and angry. One even took the time to try and throw an environmental
rant into her comments, but was cut off by the reporter.

And there are further sources that say the owners of Cook's Ranch are
upset over this and may be looking into filing a lawsuit against Warner
Bros. over this. Not a good omen, considering WB's year so far.

Thought you'd be interested--if you use this, call me "Loveless."

And then there was this report...

There was a tidbit on the news today (here in Albuquerque) about a mishap on
the set of WWW. Apparently a pyrotechnic effect went a bit out of control
and
burned a large portion of the set.

Fortunately for Warners, this is the last week of filming, and the effect
was
supposed to show a large part of the town being decimated anyway. According
to
the PR guy, this shouldn't hold up filming all that much.

On a more extended note, the residents of Galisteo (the town near the ranch
where the film was shot) are beginning to tire of large films coming to
their
area, as apparently, this isn't the first sort of mishap of this kind.
Whether
this will be the catalyst for a NM backlash against films being shot here is
yet to be determined. Personally I doubt it, but these people seemed rather
incensed at the fiasco.

Just thought I'd like to know.

Call me....lessee....The Man From Another Place.

Any posting in TALK BACK labeled as Harry Knowles is not me. I will no longer be posting to Talk Back till the registration software is installed. So if you see someone acting like me, they are full of baloney. Have fun posting. Harry