Tucson Standard

Plans to revive moviemaking at the historic Old Tucson Wild West theme park have been put on hold, with officials citing a contract dispute.

"We're at least six months behind where we were hoping to be," John Harper, general manager of American Heritage Railways, which operates Old Tucson, said.

Old Tucson Entertainment agreed in July to partner with FilmWest Studios on a new set, but the suit alleges that FilmWest breached that agreement, leaving Old Tucson with a loss of $300,000, according to KGUN. Harper said he wired FilmWest $150,000 on July 21, then sent another $150,000 by request on July 27.

"The original agreement that we had with them was a service agreement to help Old Tucson lift the production side of the company off the ground," Harper said, adding that the original agreement called for $580,000 toward the construction of the set.

Harper said it came as a shock when FilmWest asked for more than half that amount within weeks.

"So that's what kind of triggered the 'you know what, let's take a step back and let's try and figure out where this $300,000 is, and you're continuing to want more,'" he said in the KGUN story. 

The complaint was filed in Durango, Colorado, which is where American Heritage Railways is headquartered. The bigger problem, Harper said, is that the company still has not been served with the suit, though filed in mid-September, because FilmWest no longer has an office in Tucson.

"We're trying to figure out how to find them," he said. "We've actually had people in the state of California, the state of Arizona, the state of Oregon and Montana trying to look for the company and the proper representatives."

In a statement to KGUN, FilmWest said that it hadn't breached any contracts, despite that ground has not been broken on a new set.

"FilmWest Studios denies liability as asserted in the complaint and is confident that it will successfully enforce the contract between FilmWest Studios and Old Tucson Entertainment to produce meaningful content for audiences worldwide," according to the statement.

However, Harper said Old Tucson no longer wants to partner with FilmWest.

"The goal is to just get our money back and to part ways," he said. "As soon as we have those funds back, we're going to reinvest it back, and we're going to start on that set."