Hollywood came to New York to make the latest Mel Gibson movie. Three natives, including one from Syracuse, are a part of 'Panama,' an action thriller loosely based on a true story of the Panama invasion of 1989.

Mick Fury, a Syracuse native who's been in Nashville for almost 10 years is behind all the music in the film. The opportunity to write the score fell in his lap through a lucky set of coincidences and a connection to a few people working on the project. "I found this lamp and I rubbed and this genie came out and I said here's what I want for my career," Fury joked.

The genie answered Fury's wish during a COVID trip to San Francisco when he was driving across Golden Gate Bridge. "I think I almost swerved off the bridge but I kept it between the lines and took the job."

COVID forced Fury to find new ways to express his creativity and make money since artists couldn't tour during the pandemic. "I've been doing some score work for TV shows like Young & the Restless but I've never done anything on this scale before. I bit off a little more than I realized when I agreed to the job."

For six months, Fury was in the studio for 10 hours every day creating the sound for the film that not only stars Mel Gibson but Cole Hauser too. You may know him better as 'Rip' from Yellowstone.  "Hollywood is kind of a funny place and it probably stretched into a whole year after all the tweaks I was asked to make."

Writing music for a movie isn't much different than writing a song for Fury. "You're trying to tell a great story when you're writing for Keith Urban or Kenny Chesney. When you're watching a movie, you're trying to tell an emotional story that's happening as a scene plays out. It's very similar."

Fury is one of three New York natives who worked on the film. The director is Mark Neveldine of CRANK fame, who was born and raised in Watertown. And the stunt coordinator is Frank Blake also once a Watertown resident.

Credit - Highland
Credit - Highland
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Panama Plot

Panama is inspired by true events of an ex-marine, played by Hauser, who is hired by a defense contractor, played by Gibson, to travel to Panama in 1989 to complete an arms deal. In the process, he becomes involved with the U.S. invasion of Panama and learns an important lesson about the true nature of political power.

While navigating through the chaos of the local civil war, Becker must fight assassins, court femmes fatales, and negotiate with the enemy in order to complete his mission. With Stark always by his side, Becker must persevere against all odds in hopes of making it home alive.

You watch the movie and hear Fury's score on Amazon Prime. Check out the trailer in the video above.

If you like what you hear in the movie, you can listen to more at MickFury.com. "I'm going to be putting out a little album of songs from the movie which is exciting for me."

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