‘Million Dollar Quartet’ now rocking in Memphis

Filming began April 4 on the Memphis-based birthof-rock-and-roll television series “Million Dollar Quartet.”

“Memphis has opened its arms, and it’s been a great start,” said series executive producer Leslie Greif, whose Los Angeles-based Thinkfactory Media is creating the eight-episode scripted drama in partnership with CMT, the cable network where the program will debut in November. “We already shot the first scene with the young Elvis at Humes. We move and groove, in and out.”

Highly visible, thanks to its armada of equipment trucks, its small army of crew members and its fleet of vintage “picture cars,” the production in its first few days has hit Millington, the former Humes High School, the CooperYoung neighborhood and the South Main district.

“I guess I’ve been through 30 or 40 of these,” said Harry Zepatos, owner of the oft-filmed Arcade Restaurant, where shooting took place. Founded in 1919, the Arcade has been showcased in numerous TV shows and commercials and in such notable films as “Mystery Train,” by Jim Jarmusch, and “21 Grams,” directed by Alejandro Iñárritu. “It’s a lot of work,” Zepatos said, “but it’s always fun.”

Many of the significant cast members are in town, and several have documented Memphis experiences on social media. Series lead Chad Michael Murray, who plays Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, tweeted a picture of his bearded self on “Day One of Production,” commenting, “Gotta get the hair right 4 the era ... then a shave ... . ” Texan Drake Milligan, cast as the pre-fame Elvis, posted a picture from a day of “hanging out” at Graceland, with the hashtag “#wheninmemphis.” Christian Lees, who plays Jerry Lee Lewis, tweeted: “LOVED my first couple of days in Memphis. So much good music everywhere you go.”

Other cast members include Jennifer Holland, cast as Phillips’ wife, Becky; Margaret Anne Florence, cast as Phillips’ assistant, Marion Keisker; Billy Gardell, as future Elvis manager “Colonel” Tom Parker; Christian Lees’ twin brother, Jonah Lees, who will play Jerry Lee Lewis’ cousin Jimmy Swaggart; Keir O’Donnell (of the “Fargo” TV series) as WHBQ disc jockey Dewey Phillips; and Kevin Fonteyne, cast as Johnny Cash, who offered Saturday — as Cash might have done — the most honest tweet yet: “All I can hear is Spice girls blaring from Beale St. here in Memphis. Wtf?!?”

“Million Dollar Quartet” is intended to be CMT’s entrée into the increasingly crowded field of quality scripted television.

Set primarily in 1954, the eight episodes now being filmed are supposed to be the first season of what would be an ongoing series about the early years of rock and roll, with Sam Phillips as the focal point for a roster of supporting characters that also will include Ike Turner, B.B. King and various country music stars, in addition to the Mid-South “rockabillies.”

The first season is being directed by London-born Roland Joffe, a two-time Oscar nominee for the harrowing historical epics “The Killing Fields” and “The Mission”; Joffe previously worked with Greif on the recent History Channel miniseries “Texas Rising.”

Shooting is expected to be complete in early July, by which time the production is expected to have spent some $17 million in Memphis and Shelby County, in order to qualify for $4.3 million in state funds set aside for local filmmaking. This would dwarf the amounts spent in West Tennessee by even such major past movie projects as “The Firm” and “Walk the Line.”