Maybe an angel was looking over Mitch Glazer when it came to his film Passion Play.

The film, which marks the veteran screenwriter's directorial debut, features Mickey Rourke as a down-on-his-luck jazz musician who's given another shot at salvation when he tries to help a beautiful winged creature (Megan Fox) escape the hold of a murderous gangster (Bill Murray). The picture wrapped in Santa Fe last Monday after more than a month's shooting in the region.

In an interview in the east-side house where Glazer and his wife, actress Kelly Lynch (who appears in Passion Play) stayed during production, he spoke of making the film, which he first wrote some 20 years ago.

"In Hollywood, it's a very difficult one-line pitch," he said about summarizing the film's synopsis. "When I sent it to Sony, who was initially going to produce it, I knew they were thinking, 'Splash with wings.' But I wanted something personal, poetic, romantic.

"At the heart of it, it's about redemption through love. It's the idea that it's never too late, you can be saved. You can make the wrong things you did in your life right — which is what Mickey's character does."

Glazer and Rourke — who netted an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor last year for his portrayal of the title character in The Wrestler — have known one another since their high school days in Miami Beach, Fla.

"I actually describe our school as being 70 percent Jewish, 30 percent Cuban, and Mickey," Glazer said. "He was the only blonde kid."

Glazer first met Murray on the set of Saturday Night Live during its second season. SNL star John Belushi made the introduction: "Mitch, this is Bill Murray — the new kid." Murray later starred in the film Scrooged (1988), which Glazer wrote with Michael O'Donaghue.

Glazer was an English major at New York University. He segued into journalism, writing for Esquire, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and the celebrated rock 'n' roll magazine Crawdaddy! Journalism taught him to meet deadlines and develop an ear for dialogue.

"So much of my job as a screenwriter is listening and having to re-create conversations — which is what you do as a reporter," he said. "I had a library of voices to choose from."

He met SNL writer O'Donaghue during that period and teamed up with him to write the cinematic skit-driven spoof of Mondo Cane pictures titled Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979). Glazer's other writing credits include Three of Hearts (starring Lynch), The Recruit and Great Expectations.

Over the years, people repeatedly said to Glazer, "You should direct." But he stuck to the writing — reworking Passion Play a "zillion times" before it was ready to go. "This was the movie I saved to direct for 20 years," he said.

Though it seemed like it was taking forever to get made, in Glazer's words, "Last year it all came together, and next thing I know, I'm in Santa Fe."

Glazer had never met Fox before he auditioned her for the role of Lily, who is nearly destined to live out her days as a circus freak.

"Megan has the qualities I imagined for the character," Glazer said. "There's a vulnerability and a private, serene quality to her. She's mysterious in that way — her beauty is timeless and otherworldly in a way that separates her from the world, just as Lily is separated from the world by her wings."

The picture shot in and around Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

"It was originally set in Hollywood, but at the end of the day, it was the incentives that pulled us here," he said of the state's film-incentive program. His production designer, Waldemar Kalinowski — who worked on the New Mexico-based movies Appaloosa and Crazy Heart — told Glazer, "Trust me — between Santa Fe and Albuquerque you'll be able to create the world you have on the page."

Glazer said 80 percent of the film crew was made up of New Mexicans, and he used several regional actors in supporting roles. He had particular praise for Albuquerque actress Liezl Carstens, who took confident control of a seduction scene her character has with Rourke's musician.

Now that he's finished filming, Glazer plans to sleep for a week before working with editor Billy Weber to put Passion Play together.

After that, he'll let "the producers and agents figure out the business future of the film."

Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com.


Editor's note: A previous version of this story contained a spelling error in actor Mickey Rourke's name.