New Mexico to stand in for California as McConaughey stars in new movie about a 2018 deadly wildfire

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico is standing in for California in a new film as Jamie Lee Curtis’ production company tells the story of a bus driver and a school teacher who rescued students during the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history. The 2018 blaze killed 85 people and nearly erased the community of Paradise in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Starring Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera, “The Lost Bus” is being shot in and around Santa Fe and Española and in Ruidoso in southern New Mexico. The film is based on Lizzie Johnson’s novel “Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire.”