MOVIES - May 2, 1989

A $2.5-million movie that was to be actor Hal Holbrook’s directing debut has shut down before filming began because its producers ran out of money. “There’s nothing much I can do about it,” Holbrook told the Associated Press Saturday as he left Fayetteville, Ark., for New York. “I’m the director of this film and I’m out of a job.” Filming of “Staggerwing,” the story of a real-life bandit, was supposed to have begun Wednesday in Bentonville. Filmtrust, a Little Rock-based group, was producing the movie. Earl Bond, a co-founder of Filmtrust, said Sunday that the principal investor, whom he declined to identify, had backed out after committing to spend $1.5 million.