Las Vegas Mixtape v39: Supersonic Honky Tonkin,’ West African Eats, and New Downtown Funhouse

Track #3: “Waltzing With Brando” @Sahara Las Vegas

The film’s stars (L-R) captured on the red carpet: Billy Zane, Tia Carrere, and Jon Heder. (Image: courtesy of Sally Steele)

It’s a shame Vegas won’t have its own dedicated film studio anytime soon since the bill designed to make that a reality died in the Nevada Senate back in June. This was rolling through my mind when I attended the red-carpet film premiere at the Sahara for “Waltzing With Brando,” an excellent biographical drama opening September 19 in theaters nationwide. The event was part of the buzzy Future of Film Association (FOFA) and OPTIX two-day convention at the hotel.

Watching the film’s stars like Billy Zane, Jon Heder, and Tia Carrere being interviewed on the red carpet, it was easy to imagine how Vegas could be hosting more movie premieres, particularly with all the hotels here to easily add the necessary fabulosity. Having a big Vegas film studio would really put a bow on this move-over-Hollywood idea.

That all said, “Waltzing With Brando” engagingly illuminates the 2011 memoir written by Marlon Brando’s architect whom Brando had enlisted decades ago to build, against all odds, an environmentally correct hotel on his Tahitian island. Billy Zane fully captures Brando’s anything-is-possible vision, his outsider rebelliousness—and his over-the-top self-indulgence as a millionaire celebrity who had everyone in his thrall.