Dreaming up a Western: NM provides perfect setting for Netflix miniseries ‘Godless’

Scott Frank wanted to do a Western. He was already well regarded for his screenwriting work in such blockbusters as “Minority Report” and “The Wolverine,” but fulfilling his desire to write and direct a Western took more than a decade – with many false starts. Yet, he kept at it. Eventually, Frank’s project, “Godless,” found a home on Net-flix – and all over New Mexico. “I just always wanted to write a Western,” he said. “I had been thinking about doing one. It’s a genre I never worked in before.” “Godless,” which is now available on the streaming service, follows Frank Griffin, an outlaw played by Jeff Daniels, as he hunts down former gang member Roy Goode, played by Jack O’Connell. Hoping for a more peaceful life, Goode had deserted his brotherhood and sought refuge with a widow named Alice Fletcher, played by Michelle Dockery. An outcast herself, she lives in the isolated (and fictional) town of La Belle, N.M., which is run by women after most of the men were killed in a mining accident. Production for “Godless” began in September 2016 and was housed at Santa Fe Studios, though most of the film was shot on location throughout northern New Mexico. It is executive produced by Casey Silver and Steven Soderbergh. “Godless” features the largest Western film set ever built in New Mexico. La Belle was built on the San Cristobal Ranch, an 81,000 acre working ranch south of Lamy. The set is comprised of 28 buildings, including a hotel, livery, saloon, dry goods store, jail, several shanties and a mine. And it was built in 12½ weeks by a construction crew of 130. “The only brick structure in La Belle, the hotel is where the women take shelter and defend themselves from the future attack,” said Carlos Barbosa, production designer. Though Alice Fletcher’s ranch is located on the outskirts of La Belle, it was also built on the San Cristobal Ranch, a few miles down the road. A crew of 12 completed that project in five weeks. In addition to the San Cristobal Ranch, fashion designer and director Tom Ford’s ranch in Galisteo, served as the site for the fictional town of Creed, which is laid to waste by Griffin and his gang. Other scene locations included the fictional town of Olagrande at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe; a Paiute Indian camp near the Chama River in Abiquiu; and the gang’s camp and hideout in Jemez Pueblo. More filming took place at Diablo Canyon, El Rancho de las Golondrinas and Cherry Meadow north of Pecos...more