SIERRA VISTA - Burt Reynolds made hearts race in "Cannonball Run II", Gregory Peck practiced his bedside manner in "Captain Newman, M.D.", and Tony Curtis got a taste of military life in "Suppose They Gave A War and Nobody Came?"

And they all did it right here in Cochise County. The screen legends are just three of a long list of Hollywood players who have made movie magic in Southern Arizona.

From westerns to sci-fi thrillers, the region has provided the perfect backdrop for dozens of films since the 1930s, and that trend is set to continue.

Thanks to new tax incentives introduced earlier this year by the state Legislature, Arizona is experiencing a resurgence in the film industry.

"The Department of Commerce has a new tax incentives program, which started about six months ago," said Bob Nilson, Tourism and Economic Development manager for the city of Benson, who helps to maintain the film pages on the Web site explorecochise.com.

"At about that time we started getting a massive increase in hits on the Web site and we noticed the film page hits were going way up."

Nilson is one of a number of representatives across the county who help movie and documentary makers find what they are looking for.

In May, he assisted the BBC, which wanted to make a film about the trial of the Earp brothers and Doc Holiday after the gunfight at the OK Corral.

"They wanted to do something about the trial, instead of the usual thing, which was great," Nilson said. "The crew came out about a month before and we drove them around looking at locations and helped them find the things they needed."

This included gaining permission to film at night at a hardware store and Nilson found himself, as he often does, acting as a mediator for the British television channel.

"Most people agree because it's a very positive thing to have in town," he said. "These productions do bring in a lot of money."

Kay Daggett, director of the Sierra Vista Convention and Visitors Bureau and chair of the Cochise County Tourism Council, said the most recent feature film to be made here had a major impact on the local economy.

Stephen King's "Desperation", which was filmed in Bisbee and Tucson, probably brought in $1 million to Cochise County, and an estimated $4 million for the state, she said.

"People don't realize what the film industry does for the local economy," Daggett said. "These crews need things like hotels rooms and food and they also go into local bars to find people who are out of work to be extras. So that brings in all that employment income, which people don't think about.

"Then there's the set designers who are shopping at places like Home Depot for materials. When 'Desperation' was here they were in Home Depot all the time."

Daggett and her counterparts across the county are often the first point of contact for filmmakers considering Southern Arizona as their next location.

Requests also are sent out by the Arizona Department of Commerce's Film Office, which asks local representatives if they can meet movie makers' needs.

"People call for the darndest things," Daggett said. "The 'Desperation' crew called wanting desks and chairs, so we called the city of Sierra Vista, which gave them some old furniture. Then they called wanting desk clutter."

Although Cochise County has played its part in many big screen movies, it is the smaller projects which keep the local film industry in business, said Daggett.

"The big feature films only come along once in a while," she said. "It's the documentaries, the photographers, commercials and videos which are our real bread and butter."

Erika Breckel is a media, public relations and film representative with the Sierra Vista Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Among her current projects is a request to get the necessary permits for an MTV video shoot.

Asked what she enjoys about her job, she replies, "The things that we get to fulfill. There are places which cannot meet the needs we can fulfill."

Although Breckel has other duties at the Convention and Visitors Bureau, when a filmmaker's request comes in, everything else is dropped.

"It's not our job to meet the stars, but to facilitate the needs," she said. "We have to make sure they have everything they are asking for. Every day they are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and we have to be able to respond quickly.

"We could be asked to help with a huge film with 'A' list Hollywood stars, or it could be a video for grandma."