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The dining area of what was once Milton’s Family Restaurant just east of Downtown Albuquerque was crowded and bustling. The once popular spot for breakfast and a hot cup of coffee has been closed for a number of years and since then a few eateries have unsuccessfully tried to fill the space. The throng of people on this recent evening weren’t there for huevos rancheros or short stacks, but instead setting up cameras and lights for a local film production. The sight of film crews taking over spaces in Albuquerque is nothing new these days, but this specific shoot was a little different. Not only was the former diner peppered with familiar faces from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), but two notable New Mexico denizens were also serving as ringmasters of the controlled chaos.
Like many other shoots, everyone inside and outside the building was actively engaged in a task. As lights were still going up in the parking lot while the sun was setting, former mixed martial arts fighter and film producer Keith Jardine was knee-deep in getting things ready for the overnight shoot of Killer Kafe, a film he wrote and directed. Jardine has acted and performed stunts in numerous films for nearly 10 years, but it was a connection with former law enforcement officer and cannabis CEO Darren White that spurred Jardine’s current project. Jardine tells The Paper. he had asked White for help with Jardine’s 2022 short film El Paso 11:55, which led to the two creating Broken Ear Productions in early 2023.
“I came to [White] to help me with my short,” Jardine says. “He helped me out and we’ve bonded ever since.”
He says the end of the Screen Actors’ Guild strike late last year gave the two an opportunity to kick off the production on their latest feature, albeit with very short notice. The partners acted quickly with White noting the SAG contract was ratified a little more than a week before actors and crew members filled the former restaurant.
When the strike ended, Jardine says he thought, “Let’s take advantage of this. The big studios aren’t doing movies so let’s get a SAG waiver and make [our] own independent film. I can get the best crew in Albuquerque and everything, they’re all available.”
The crew was in fact ready to work, and they rose to the challenge of a fast-paced production environment.
“We’re at breakneck speed,” he says. “We’re doing 12 days, we’re doing nine pages a day. The industry standard is five so we’re hustling, we’re jamming, and we’re getting it.”
Jardine says he remembers the antsy feeling leading up to filming while SAG members were still on strike.
“I couldn’t reach out to [the] cast, besides friends and family,” he says, adding that he felt it was imperative to secure a local crew and cast. But he says he also knows the importance of having a unionized crew.
“I’m SAG and I appreciate the value of that,” he tells The Paper.
The production consists of a “100 percent local crew, 99 percent local cast,” according to Jardine. As for the story’s setting, Jardine says, “We don’t really refer to it, but it’s obviously in Albuquerque.” With noticeable locations like the former home of Milton’s, he is confident locals will “definitely recognize” Albuquerque in his film.
It’s somewhat expected that Jardine’s cast includes some of his old MMA buddies such as Michelle Waterson, Maurice Green and Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. But Jardine insists the film is not about the ring at all. As its title suggests, the film deals with violent subject matter, but the director assures that his creation is not a traditional horror flick.
Jardine calls Killer Kafe a “Psychological-thriller-slash-slasher,” and he is tight-lipped when asked about the plot, promising, “There’s a bunch of twists, I’ve tried my best not to give it away.”
He does divulge though that the movie’s main character is a serial killer in crisis, and describes the central figure as, “Caught in a precarious position and then he starts to take advantage of it, and starts relishing the opportunity… after a while it gets really old, and the world caves in on him, and he starts to have a breakdown.”
When asked about his acting role in the film, Jardine admits with a smile that he is, “Always the bad guy.”
Born in Butte, Montana, Jardine earned his position as a combat sports veteran, fighting for most of his career out of Albuquerque. He is well-known on television from his breakout performance on season two of the successful The Ultimate Fighter reality series and his thirty UFC appearances, with memorable victories against Forrest Griffin and Chuck Liddell. Retired from fighting, he can still be seen on the big screen in dozens of films and TV roles including Copshop, An American in Texas, and 2023’s Surrounded. Careful film enthusiasts can see him killed by Keanu Reeves in the first John Wick film.
The UFC fighter-turned-director has had a career trajectory one might expect from a professional athlete finding his niche in the film industry. Jardine explains, “I fought in UFC for a while, and that got me into acting. I really geeked out on acting for a long time, and then I wanted to start creating my own roles, the kinds of roles that I wanted to play, so I got into writing. I didn’t know I had a knack for it, and all of a sudden I got a bunch of scripts that people want to do… I decided I want to do my own script. So I did a short last year that won a bunch of awards, and it did really well.”
Jardine says he hopes to get his latest project in front of audiences by the end of this year.
You can follow the film’s progress at killer_kafe on Instagram.