Courtesy of Xochitl Pena, The Desert Sun
Filmmaker Ron Shelton has always had a warm place in his heart for Palm Springs, especially around the holidays.
He recalls driving through town and seeing plastic icicles dancing in the wind and inflatable snowmen blowing down the street.
“It was around Christmas and it was 105 (degrees) and I was playing golf and there were some dust devils blowing down the street and Christmas trees were blowing off of lots and Dean Martin was being piped in singing ‘Let it Snow’, and everybody was very happy,” he said Wednesday.
That imagery of Christmas in a very un-Christmas-like place always stuck in his mind as a great backdrop for a story.
Enter “Just Getting Started.”
The movie, set in Palm Springs at a lively retirement community called Villa Capri, hits theaters on Friday and stars Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones as competitive alpha males vying for the affection of the same woman played by Rene Russo.
From Sheri Dettman