Wastelands Is a Movie About the Miami Music Scene — and Extras Are Needed

During the pandemic, director Michael Ruiz-Unger began talking with his screenwriter friend, Mickey de Grand IV, about an idea he had for a movie influenced by their history playing rock music in Miami. "We grew up in the scene, going to shows and being in bands. We started noticing real estate was shifting around Miami, and the places we frequented were closing down. I started having the idea of a noir adventure comedy about a musician feeling squeezed out of town."

Ruiz-Unger and de Grand have been friends since high school, and this was their chance to work together on cranking out a feature script. "I've shot a lot of videos for his band, Psychic Mirrors. I told him I'd shoot his next video if he would write this script for me. We started talking about feature films that we could make in a year."

The result of these conversations is Wastelands, set to be a feature film that Ruiz-Unger describes as "about a Miami musician who sells his vintage guitar to get enough money to leave town. But then the guitar gets stolen, and he has 24 hours to find it."

After years of preparation, the film is set to shoot around Miami in October, funded by a cinematic residency Ruiz-Unger received from Oolite Arts this past year. They already filmed a few shots this summer with the help of about thirty extras. "The lead role is played by Alex Nunez. He plays guitar with Psychic Mirrors, too. He's involved with the scene and got a lot of the extras. We filmed an intro, which is a vignette with all these people getting ready to go out to a show that Alex is performing at," he shares.

When Wastelands does go into official production in the fall, they will need a boatload more extras to fill up the audience of a concert at a still-to-be-decided venue. Anyone interested in volunteering to be an extra is encouraged to fill out a contact form at the film's website at wastelandsthemovie.com/contact. Ruiz-Unger wanted to reiterate that extras will not be compensated financially, but is grateful for anyone who wants to contribute to their vision. "We have a budget, but after paying cast and crew, we have to pinch pennies to make this."

With the leading roles cast and the crew already filled, the plan is for the whole movie to be shot over ten October days and nights. "We need to have it completely shot by November. Then it will take a while to edit it, and hopefully we can start submitting it to festivals next summer." As Wastelands is immersed in the Miami music scene, lead actor Alex Nunez's band, also not so coincidentally called Wastelands, will contribute songs to the movie. The score will be composed by the screenwriter, de Grand.

Movies that Ruiz-Unger hopes people will one day compare Wastelands to include the 1985 Martin Scorsese film, After Hours, The Warriors, and Michael Mann's 1981 movie, Thief. He also hopes the movie can document a renaissance for the Miami indie rock scene, a scene Ruiz-Unger felt a true part of a decade ago when he sang and played bass for bands like Little Daggers and Heavy Drag. "This is a story that was based on all the venues where rock bands could play were closing down. The irony is that as we're finally about to shoot, many of the spaces are reopening."