While Bill Murray, Mickey Rourke, Megan Fox and Kelly Lynch film the 1950s-period drama Passion Play in and around Santa Fe, a different kind of high-voltage show may play out at the Roundhouse today.

Yet another legislative bill seeking to cap the state's popular film incentive program is scheduled for a hearing — coinciding with Film and Media Day at the Capitol, an event designed to draw film workers, supporters and those curious to get into the industry.

"We'll have demonstrations of shooting (film), we'll make a film about the trial of Billy the Kid, there will be stunt demonstrations, plus a trailer showing films shot in New Mexico," Lisa Strout, director of the New Mexico Film Office, said Thursday.

Meanwhile, SB 235, a bill that would put a $2 million cap on production expenditures for individual film and television projects under the state incentives program, may be heard inside the Roundhouse. The bill was introduced by Senate Finance Committee Vice Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, who two years ago introduced a similar bill, which was tabled.

Just last week, the film industry survived a more drastic bill, introduced by Rep. Dennis J. Kintigh, R-Roswell, that would have eliminated all film incentives. That bill was tabled by a 5-2 vote in the Labor and Human Resources chamber, although committee member Candy Spence Ezzell, R-Roswell — who voted against the tabling — told the assemblage it was time to start compromising.

On Thursday, Smith said he feels the same way.

"I told the administration that if it doesn't find room on the 50-yard line, it may lose the whole thing in the future," he said. "I'm not adverse to trying to cultivate a new industry; I just don't want to see a complete sellout."

At least 40 states around the country now have film incentives, which draw Hollywood projects — and, ideally, money. Since the governor made filmmaking a cornerstone of his economic development package in 2003, a number of high-profile films have been shot here, including Oscar-nominated Crazy Heart (which opens in Santa Fe today), No Country For Old Men, and Terminator Salvation.

Passion Play — written and directed by Mitch Glazer — is just the latest in a string of roughly 135 major film and television productions to film in New Mexico since 2003. It stars Fox as an angel who is held captive by a murderous gangster, played by Murray. Rourke is a down-and-out trumpet player who gets a shot at redemption.

On Thursday, some of the Passion Play cast and crew, including Lynch, worked at the Scottish Rite Center on Paseo de Peralta. The production will continue to film here until Feb. 10.

Variety magazine recently named New Mexico the No. 3 place to make movies among the 50 states, and MovieMaker magazine tapped Albuquerque as the No. 1 city to make movies. Still, the merit of film-incentives programs continues to be questioned around the country.

Two competing studies on the topic in New Mexico commissioned just over a year ago confused the situation here — one suggesting the state garners $1.50 in net tax revenue for every dollar spent, the other putting the figure at about 15 cents for every dollar.

Smith said even if you split the difference between those estimates, the state is still losing out. He said he's begun getting more e-mails from people within the film industry here who suggest the incentives are being abused.

Strout on Thursday acknowledged that incentives may not be working in every state around the country, but she said New Mexico's is sound. She said Smith's bill would probably cut back film production in this state by more than 75 percent.

Smith conceded he's up against somewhat of a stacked deck, given the governor's obvious endorsement of movie making and the very vocal film industry itself.

"When you have a program that has the support of one of the three branches of government, and you have strong union support for that as well, it's tough," he said.

"Union head Jon Hendry (business agent for IATSE 480, the local film technicians' union) told me at a hearing a few years ago that he didn't believe I even had the right to discuss this, because the very discussion of it discourages business.

"I told him to go mind his own damn business, and I'd mind mine."

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