Angie Franzer Metromix Dusk is just beginning to set on the Coachella Valley while the Colony Palms Hotel in Palm Springs buzzes with action. Actors scurry to the makeup room where they will be powered, hair sprayed and tweaked before their big scenes. The production staff — recognizable by their secret-service like earpieces — make final lighting adjustments. Lines are memorized, the scene is set, and it will only be moments before local director Christian Sesma says the magic word: “Action.” What looks like an ordinary hotel on the outside has been transformed into a full-fledged movie set for Sesma's third full-length feature, “Shoot the Hero.” La Quinta actress and entrepreneur Denise DuBarry Hay is serving as executive producer of the film that features her daughter, Samantha Lockwood, Palm Springs- based actor Fred “The Hammer” Williamson and former CBS 2 reporter Mike Hatton. While other movies have shot a scene or two in the desert, “Shoot the Hero” is filming almost entirely in the Coachella Valley. “It's the realization of a long-standing dream, to film in our home,” said Sesma, a Palm Springs High School graduate who decided to try his hand at filmmaking after being hospitalized for a burst appendix in 2003. Palm Springs' close proximity to Los Angeles has allowed Sesma to compile a cast of local and Hollywood talent, including Jason Mewes (“Clerks”), Katie Morgan (“Zack and Miri Make A Porno”), Danny Trejo (“Desperado”) and Nick Turturro (“NYPD Blue”). “People who live in L.A. and all these big cities, it's easier for them to get to ...

Bruce Fessier The Desert Sun Palm Springs-based director Christian Sesma will begin work Wednesday on a new action-comedy film that will enable several of the principals to work close to home. “Shoot the Hero,” written and directed by Sesma, will be produced by La Quinta actress and entrepreneur Denise DuBarry Hay. It features her daughter, Samantha Lockwood, and Palm Springs-based actor Fred Williamson. Jason Mewes of “Clerks” and “Zack and Miri Make A Porno,” Danny Trejo of “Desperado” and “Heat,” and Nick Turturro of “NYPD Blue” fame, also will appear. The movie is about a couple who unintentionally become involved in a botched jewel heist while shopping for wedding rings. The casino owner who engineered the heist hires two hit men to clean up the mess, and, as the couple tries to extricate themselves, they discover new things about each other. Sesma, whose 2004 short film, “Cycles,” was screened at the Palm Springs International ShortFest, also has written and produced the feature films “6:30,” a teen thriller, and “On Bloody Sunday,” a teen horror film. Hay, whose entertainment media company, Kaswit, Inc., develops and funds infomercials and films, was first approached to finance “Shoot the Hero” by Leanna Bonamici of Casablanca Studios, where Sesma shot some of “On Bloody Sunday.” When Lockwood told her a few months later she had won a role in “Shoot the Hero” from a casting call, Hay said, “I decided it must be fate. “After that, things just sort of fell together,” she said. “I found out Christian was still looking for financing, and ...

PALM SPRINGS, CA- There will be a lot of “Bang Bang” and “Shoot’em up” going on this coming weekend, and if you hear loud explosions, don’t be alarmed. It will most likely be a result of a movie in the making called “Shoot The Hero”, a new feature film that will begin shooting on Sunday. “Shoot The Hero” is the latest project from filmmaker Christian Sesma, a local who made the 2004 short movie “Cycles”, which won critical acclaim and became an official selection at the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films. Sesma also made “Things That Go Bump In The Night”, “6:30” and “On Bloody Sunday”, which is a feature length teen horror film. Sesma is also a young Latino filmmaker, a rising star of his generation. Local involvement in Shoot the Hero doesn’t end with Sesma, who wrote the screenplay and directs the film. La Quinta philanthropist, actress, and entrepreneur, Denise DuBarry Hay is producing the film, her daughter, actress Samantha Lockwood plays one of the leads, and another local favorite, veteran actor Fred Williamson, joins the cast as well. “I first heard about Shoot the Hero through Leanna Bonamici, owner of Casablanca Studios.” said DuBarry Hay. “Christian had shot a teen horror film at her soundstage last year, and was looking for some financing for Shoot the Hero. Leanna invited me up to meet him. I read the screenplay and I was quite impressed with his abilities but it was still very early on in the project. Then ...