Fitzgerald native's movie to premier at Tifton theater

Feb. 19—FITZGERALD — You hear about this guy, this Alexander Kane, making all these movies in south Georgia and bringing mega-stars like Bruce Willis into the Dirty South, and you wonder if he's doing it with smoke and mirrors or if he maybe has something on a bunch of somebodies and they owe him big favors.

Then you meet him. And talk with him. And you get it.

Kane, Fitzgerald born and raised, a purple-and-gold Hurricane 'til the day he dies, created a stir in the region in between all the COVID variances when he brought Willis, Luke Wilson and other name Hollywood actors to south Georgia and filmed a series of movies, creating a stir in places like his hometown, in Tifton, Cordele, all these little towns, some of which don't even have theaters that show first-run movies.

Now he's ready to put his work on display, allow some of the local "actors" who scored bit parts in the movies to make their big-screen debuts when he and several of the actors who actually do this for a living come to the Tift Theater in downtown Tifton Friday for a red-carpet premier of "Gasoline Alley," one of the six films Kane and his TMG Productions have filmed in the region.

"Gasoline Alley," which tells the story of a man implicated in the triple homicide of three Hollywood starlets who begins his own investigation into the crime and enlists the two detectives on his tail in order to expose a conspiracy more explosive than any of them imagined, is an action thriller directed by Edward John Drake and starring Willis, Luke Wilson and Devon Sawa.

The premier will be held Friday starting at 6 p.m. The movie, 99% of which was filmed in downtown Tifton, will be shown at 7 p.m. It is rated R. (Tickets are available at purplepass.com.)

"Look, I know enough to know the only reason these (filmmakers and actors) came to Fitzgerald and south Georgia to do these movies is because, by shooting away from one of the production hubs like Atlanta or New Orleans, they could shoot the movie on a non-union budget," Kane said. "The fees, the penalties that are paid on these larger productions really bloat a movie's budget. Hell, the teamsters get $600,000 just for being there.

"I looked at all of the variables in making movies, and it hit me that there is power in the numbers. I did my research and saw that the real power was with people like Brad Pitt and Mark Wahlberg, people who make their own movies. My dream since I was a kid was to be an actor. That's still my dream. But I decided I'd use my production company to make my own movies and then make movies that I can star in. I'll do the Hollywood dream in reverse.

"There was no epiphany for me; I wanted to be an actor my whole life. It was just that it wasn't until I turned 35 that I decided to do it."

In addition to a disarming gift of gab and movie star good looks — Alexander is often mistaken for Charlie Hunnan, who starred in the vastly underrated Guy Ritchie movie "The Gentleman" — a couple of the things Alexander picked up along the way growing up in Fitzgerald is a firm belief in self and the ability to overcome adversity with hard work.

His initial Hollywood dream was put on hold when "I knocked up my girlfriend." He was divorced a short while later and "reset" with a new wife. They lived in a single-wide trailer and "had $9 to our name."

But he talked a friend into a job with the pipeline industry and spent the next 15 years moving up the ladder in the industry, eventually talking himself into a survey manager's position — a position that usually takes 10 years of understudy work to be even considered for — that paid $100 an hour.

"I'm one of those folks who believes that you fake it 'til you make it," Kane said. "I had 40 crews under me when I took the job in Texas, and I made it clear to them that I didn't have to know how to do what you do as well as you do, I just need to know how to lead men to do their job. I came armed with a big mouth and a confident attitude."

Still, while making all that money, Kane knew in his heart he wanted to act.

"I was making more money in one check than a lot of people I knew were making in several months," he said. "But I was ready to pull the ripcord. I went in knowing that acting is not about who looks best, who has the most charisma or even who wants it more than anyone else. You need luck, timing and magic."

Kane, who'd started spending time in the gym, getting work done on his teeth and hair as he prepared to make the transition to acting, gave himself five years to make it in the profession. Within an hour of sending out his first head shots, he got a modeling job that paid $3,000. After that, though, nothing.

Kane has managed to land small roles in 14 productions, and with partner Mike Donovan he came up with the concept of a production company that he would use to a) bring Hollywood to his hometown and b) propel him toward that acting career that remains the carrot on his career stick.

He worked as hard as he had in the pipeline business, turning one stark realization into a motivating factor.

"It dawned on me that the people who were producers were generally lazy," Kane said. "I was willing to do their work because I wanted to learn, and they were willing to let me because they didn't want to work. They wanted to get their check and go back to enjoying life."

One of the ideas he pitched to land Willis and the production rights to the films "Breach," "Reactor," "Deadlock," "American Siege," "White Elephant," "Bandit," and "Gasoline Alley" was to bring Willis to the region, have him on each set for a short period for a relatively small amount of money (by Willis' standards), and use his name to get financial backing.

The effort has worked so well, Kane and TMG are in line to secure the rights to remake one of classic cinema's greatest movies, "High Noon."

All of which is leading to that long-delayed but still burning dream.

"Hey, we've got a concept that's been successful, but I don't give a sh — about all this smoke-and-mirrors stuff we're doing," Kane said. "I still want to be Burt Reynolds. I care about the magic of movies, and you only get one life to try and experience that.

"Anybody can have a dream, but it's what you do to make it come true that matters. Let somebody tell me I can't do something. I'll find a way to ram that round peg through that square hole."