The brunt of the action in UNDISPUTED takes place at fictitious Sweetwater Prison, a remote location in the Mojave Desert. “We needed a prison we could work in for the duration of the shoot, because 90% of the film takes place there,” producer Andrew Sugerman says. “We started scouting in California, but the prisons were occupied and functioning, and it would’ve have been very difficult to move inmates around to accommodate a film’s schedule. Then we found this new prison an hour’s drive north of Las Vegas, The High Desert State Prison, where a whole pod hadn’t opened yet.”
That pod became the setting for UNDISPUTED – and presented its own slew of security challenges. To enter the set, the film’s cast; crew and extras all had to submit to FBI checks. The production was notified that blue was the color reserved for the prison’s real-life inmates, and the prison security requested that, in addition to name tags, the crew wear a color other than blue when they were on prison grounds. But some real-life Nevada prisoners did get the opportunity to make it on screen. To populate the penultimate final fight scene with the required boisterous, enthusiastic masses, High State Prison Warden George Grigas recalls how the prison helped come up with a solution. “I’m also the warden for the Indian Springs Conservation Camp, with minimum security inmates who are toward the end of their sentences and have proven their trustworthiness and reliability. They got a kick out of getting their mug on camera for a few seconds and some money added to their account. So it was a win-win situation.”
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