Jimmy Smits and Caitlin McGee on the set of Bluff City Law. Photograph courtesy Maarten de Boer / NBC Universal
This last year or so has been a record-breaker for the film biz in Memphis. Strictly speaking, few of these projects that were started, under way, or completed in the past 12 months used actual film (so quaint, so expensive), but the term is big enough to include TV, online, corporate video, documentaries, music videos, and commercials.
The Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission recruited and/or supported around 80 projects between July 2018 and June 2019. When final figures are in, they’re likely to show more than $8 million spent — that’s direct local client spending without a multiplier and more than 1,500 jobs created from these endeavors. The biggest chunk of that by far comes from movies and episodic TV shows.
And they’re making an impression. If we look at the projects making news in the past year, we can see how busy the business of entertainment has been lately.
Back in 2017, the faith-based film Indivisible shot many scenes in Germantown and made its premiere last October. It’s directed by Memphis optometrist David G. Evans, who helmed another faith-based film, 2010’s The Grace Card.
Hallmark’s Christmas at Graceland got ample media coverage in the summer of 2018 as mini-snowfalls startled some folks around town. The key action took place at Graceland, which allowed the inside of Elvis Presley’s mansion to be used for filming. Post production wasted no time and it premiered on the Hallmark Channel November 17th, getting a top rating for cable easily besting several sports shows.
As that happened, the Netflix project Uncorked was filming last November and December, telling the story of a young man who wants to become a sommelier while his father expects him to take over the family barbecue restaurant. Netflix hasn’t announced when it will be streaming.
In 2017, Memphian Tom Shadyac directed Brian Banks, with Aldis Hodge, Greg Kinnear, and Melanie Liburd at the top of the cast. It hit a couple of film festivals and won some awards even before its official release last month.
Hallmark, delighted with Christmas at Graceland, quickly booked two more projects shot earlier this year. Wedding at Graceland brought the two lovers from the Christmas movie to the altar at Elvis’ place. Speedy Hallmark shot it in the spring and aired it June 1st. Sticking with a winning concept, Christmas at Graceland: Home for the Holidays finished filming a few weeks ago and will be before your eyes by the holidays. A different cast, but probably a very familiar story.
Looming over it all right now is Bluff City Law, courtesy NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast. The production breezed into town early this year to film a pilot starring veteran actor Jimmy Smits and relative newcomer Caitlin McGee as a father-daughter lawyer team passionately righting wrongs. It had star power and impressive production values, but every pilot is a gamble. The execs at NBCUniversal would take a look and decide its fate. It was in May that the network smiled on the project and ordered enough episodes to get a first season under way.
Since Linn Sitler took over the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission in 1987, it’s become clear that moviemakers love to shoot in Memphis. But love, sadly, doesn’t assure that they’ll come, although it used to be in those days before incentives and accountants made the difference.
Just because it had Bluff City in the title didn’t guarantee it would be filmed here. The Tennessee Entertainment Commission and the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission had to labor mightily even to get the pilot done here, and then again to get the production to return to shoot the series. Local cast, crew, and citizens statewide wrote letters to lawmakers and the state’s new administration. It all worked to get the season under way, but if Bluff City Law survives, it will take more trips to the governor’s office and the General Assembly to persuade them to extend enough state production incentives to keep the legal drama in town.
It’s not the first network TV series to be based in Memphis. Elvis — Good Rockin’ Tonight was on ABC in the early 1990s and at the time the most expensive per-episode series on TV. Then there was Sun Records in 2017. But Bluff City could swamp them all, including the late Nashville series.
Since Linn Sitler took over the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission in 1987, it’s become clear that moviemakers love to shoot in Memphis. But love, sadly, doesn’t assure that they’ll come, although it used to be in those days before incentives and accountants made the difference. Memphis hosted The Firm, The People vs. Larry Flynt, The Rainmaker, 21 Grams, Walk the Line, and others that got Oscar attention. Since then, states with more seductive incentives programs such as Louisiana and Georgia, have pulled in the productions.
“The fact that producers love Memphis and they want so much to stay here will enter into the decision,” Sitler says, “but I’m afraid they won’t stay if they can’t afford to.”
It’s like the city has to go back to the gas pump before each new season and before each new feature film. The attendant has to think about it and decide if he’ll allow access to the fuel. As good as this last year has been, Sitler says Memphis has already lost an independent film and a network TV series that wanted to come here but there wasn’t enough money. “We need much more money in the state film fund,” she says. “If we want all this good fertile activity to go on, incentivizing it is going to have to begin in Nashville.”
Memphis is doing its part. The city and county, through the Economic Development Growth Engine, provided $1.4 million for Bluff City Law, and Memphis Tourism contributed another $350,000. “That’s very good for a local incentive,” Sitler says, “but the state has to be there. There’s no way that we have that kind of tax base just in one county to equal what the state could bring to the table.”
So if you’re looking for a happy ending, well, there’s still a lot of work to be done.
