Hollywood’s latest World War II action movie, “Windtalkers,” which stars Nicolas Cage and Christian Slater, is also about Saipan, but not a portion of the island was shown in the movie.
MGM decided to shoot the $35 million movie on Oahu in Hawaii.
Hawaii has been the favorite location of big film productions—”Waterworld” and “Pearl Harbor” were shot there.
Eric Plinske, director of the Small Business Development Center of Northern Marianas College and coordinator of an informal association of local film production outfits, attributed this to the “aggressive” promotion of Hawaii’s film industry.
“We don’t have an organized film industry here. An aggressive film office could have gotten major film projects such as (‘Windtalkers’),” Plinske said in an interview.
The CNMI, he said, missed great chances to be featured in Hollywood movies due to bureaucracy and lack of an organized film industry.
For instance, the Northern Marianas was considered for the filming of the popular TV series, “Survivors,” but it did not materialize.
The CNMI was also one of the locations considered for “The Beach” which was eventually filmed on a remote island in Thailand.
“Castaway” was filmed in Fiji.
“The CNMI has great potentials. You can market the Northern Marianas directly to producers and directors. We’ve got 14 islands to offer,” Plinske said.
He noted that there is pending legislation that would establish a CNMI film office, but he said it should be placed under the Marianas Visitors Authority rather than the Department of Commerce.
“MVA has a functional marketing division. It would be cost-effective to place it under the agency,” he said.
Plinske said the film office can serve as one-stop shop for film permit issuance, act as liaison for all government agencies, enforce rules and regulations and promote the CNMI as a major film destination in the Pacific.
“Windtalkers” was filmed on private and state properties as well as military sites on Oahu.
The production team rented a state-owned warehouse during the shooting, which lasted several months.
According to reports, movie director John Woo, who also directed Tom Cruise in “Mission Impossible 2” and Cage in “Face Off,” liked the island’s Munro Trail because of its similarity to Saipan.
The production of the movie was estimated to have used 2,000 to 3,000 “extras.”
The film was ready for release last year but due to the Sept. 11 incident, its public showing was moved to summer this year.
Cage, in the movie, portrays a Marine tasked to guard Navajo code talker Carl Yahzee, played by Adam Beach, during his stay on “the Japanese Island of Saipan.”
The movie portrayed the village of Tanapag inhabited not by local Chamorros or Carolinians, but by Japanese families. There was no mention at all of the local people.
Former Marine Scout Manuel “Kiyu” Villagomez said he would like to see the movie.
“I’ve been hearing a lot about the Navajos and in fact I met some of them during their visit here in 1994. I would love to watch the movie,” he said.
Some of the over 400 Navajo code talkers visited Saipan in 1994 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of the island.
Brenna Cabrera, 13, granddaughter of former Marine Scout Gregorio Cabrera said she and her family will watch the movie.
“A lot of us here will watch it,” Cabrerra said.
“Windtalkers” is currently being shown on Saipan.
The language of the Navajos was used by the U.S. military to transmit top secret information during the war. The Navajo code was never broken by the Japanese.
