‘Heroes’ a labor of love for filmmaker

By his own admission, 43-year-old Malcolm Brooks is a dreamer. And his dream of making movies in Las Vegas is finally coming true.

Brooks' debut feature, "Heroes," begins a weeklong run at Galaxy Theatres' Neonopolis multiplex today. If it's a success, Galaxy officials also might play the movie at their theater in Austin, Texas.

"We're taking a gamble that it works," explains Lee Josselyn, Galaxy's operations vice president and film buyer. "You never know when that one movie's going to click."

Brooks began shooting "Heroes" in February 2006, focusing on an advertising executive (played by Tezz Yancey) trying to track down, and avenge, his nephew's death -- a quest that leads not only to the culprit, but to a conspiracy and cover-up.

The movie's less-than-skeleton crew (or, as Brooks describes it, "the 'S' in skeleton crew") was so overburdened, the movie's initial three-week production schedule didn't allow enough time to finish shooting.

So Brooks had to take out a high-interest loan to finance another week of production in June 2006. That second shoot cost more than the initial $20,000 Brooks spent to shoot the first time around. (Originally, he had planned to use the money to buy a house, but Southern Nevada's now-ended real estate boom priced him out of the market at the time, prompting him to invest in himself -- and his movie -- instead.)

"Heroes' " origins date back to the early '90s, when Brooks left the Air Force -- after eight years at Nellis Air Force Base -- to try his luck as an actor in Los Angeles.

His six years of struggle included periods of living off his credit cards and living in his car. "I ran out of couches to sleep on," he explains. Eventually, Brooks realized he'd never make it in mainstream Hollywood.

Instead, he worked in independent productions, which proved good preparation for his own independent production.

"When I look back," Brooks says, his no-frills filmmaking colleagues "were doing their own thing -- and showing me it can be done." In addition to acting (and acting classes), Brooks joined a writing class at the Los Angeles Bridge Conservatory -- and wrote, produced and directed a short titled "The Revolutionaries."

Even during his Southern California sojourn, however, Brooks says he always intended to return to Southern Nevada -- and to shoot "Heroes" here.

The initial script went through many changes through the years, he explains. "As I changed and grew, so did the story."

After returning to Las Vegas, Brooks worked a variety of jobs. (He's currently an advertising representative for a yellow-pages directory; his wife, Rosalind, a former teacher, runs a mobile oil-change service.) But he never abandoned his filmmaking dream -- or his dream of making those films in Las Vegas.

That included casting "Heroes" with local talent.

"Whoever came through the door and could act" got a part, he notes. "The talent level in Las Vegas was better than I expected."

And, thanks to his knowledge of the area, Brooks was able to tap a wide variety of locations for "Heroes." Some of them, he acknowledges, came courtesy of "people who didn't know me from a hole in the ground" but allowed him to shoot at their properties, from houses to warehouses.

Once filming began, Brooks discovered filmmaking was "much more difficult than I ever though it would be," he admits.

But it also was "so much more fulfilling," Brooks adds.

Because of budgetary constraints, Brooks "had to cut a lot of material I couldn't film," he recalls. Even with the problems, "it went by in a breeze to me -- I never thought about time." Because "you're doing what you love, you're not watching the clock."

Post-production also presented some problems, included re-recording dialogue from one of the performers who had moved to New York.

Fixing the sound was one of Josselyn's preconditions for booking "Heroes" at Neonopolis following a private screening earlier this year; having it rated by the MPAA was the other. (The ratings board awarded it an "R" for profanity.)

"If we've got the screen and if they meet my requirements and if a film is playable," Josselyn says, "then we're happy to try and help."

Besides, "the public's the one that makes the decision" regarding a movie's ultimate playability, Josselyn points out.

And that, Brooks acknowledges, can be a bit nerve-wracking.

Now that "Heroes" is hitting the big screen, "I'm excited -- and nervous," he says. "It's something I've labored on and given birth to -- and now it's going into the world for consumption."

All of which proves that "dreams do come true," he says. But "you can't ever guess all the things you have to endure" to make dreams come true, he concludes. "The fantasy never shows you the valleys you have to go through. It only shows you the top of the mountain."

Contact reporter Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.