5 Memphis movie and TV projects to look for in 2021
Will the entertainment landscape return to pre-pandemic “normal” in 2021? The answer, I can say without hesitation, is “probably not but, really, who knows? Not me!” But one thing is certain: Studios and individual artists will continue to produce motion pictures and television programs — or “content,” if you will (although I’d rather you wouldn’t) — for the rapacious streaming services and the hungry and hurting cinema chains.
Some of these — as has been the case for a couple of decades now — will have a certain Memphicentric or Memphis-adjacent appeal. So here’s a look at five projects that might be of particular interest to residents of the MidSouth.
‘Coming 2 America’
From Memphis director Craig Brewer (handpicked for the project by star Eddie Murphy, after the duo clicked on “Dolemite Is My Name”), this much-anticipated and pandemic-delayed sequel to 1988’s “Coming to America” is set to debut on Amazon Prime Video on March 5. (Due to Brewer’s hometown status, Memphis likely will host at least one theatrical screening of the film, and perhaps a weeklong run.)
This time, Zamundan royal Akeem (Murphy) and his aide de camp, Semmi (Arsenio Hall), return to America after Akeem discovers he has a street-smart son (Jermaine Fowler) in Queens. The impressive supporting cast includes James Earl Jones, John Amos, Kiki Layne, Wesley Snipes and Memphisborn ex-”saturday Night Live” cast member and irrepressible Twitter wag Leslie Jones.
‘Women of the Movement’
Shooting begins the first week in January in Memphis, Ripley, Tennessee, and Greenwood, Mississippi, on this ambitious six-episode series about the late Mamie Till Mobley, who devoted her life to seeking justice for her son, Emmett Till, 14, who was abducted and brutally murdered in August 1955, while visiting relatives in the Mississippi Delta.
Intended as the opening salvo of a project that will honor other civil rights crusaders in subsequent seasons, the show features Tony Award-winner Adrienne Warren as Mrs. Mobley and an “A” list of talent behind the camera: The producers include Will Smith and Jay-z, while the director is Gina Prince-bythewood (”Love & Basketball,” “The Old Guard”).
The show is expected to debut in the summer or fall on ABC.
‘Elvis’
Arguably undervalued at No. 53 on the Playlist’s recent list of “The 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2021,” this biographical drama (”Elvis” is only a tentative title) made worldwide news in March when Tom Hanks, who is playing Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker, in the film, announced from the set in Australia that he had contracted COVID-19. (After being hospitalized as a precaution, the actor made a full recovery.)
Austin Butler (the Manson family member known as “Tex” in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) seems like he’ll make a convincing Elvis, but “authenticity” is not a trait often associated with Australian director Baz Luhrmann (who usually shoots in his native country), known for such assaults on eyeballs and eardrums as “Moulin Rouge!” and the 2013 “The Great Gatsby.”
As Playlist assessed: “Whatever Baz Luhrmann decides to make, you can be assured that the results will contain many layers of pomp, glitz, and visual extravagance. In other words, he’s an ideal fit for the larger-than-life biography of rock n’ roll trailblazer Elvis Presley.”
Set for release Nov. 5 by Warner Bros., the specifics of the film remain hush-hush but the cast list is intriguing: It includes the English songwriter known as Yola as gospel guitar hero Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
‘Jacir’
Shot here this winter under strict COVID-19 protocols, this debut feature
film from Memphis-by-way-of-jordan writer-director Waheed Alqawasmi casts Lorraine Bracco of the “Sopranos” as the lone white holdout in an ethnically transformed neighborhood whose bigoted beliefs are challenged by her new neighbor, a Syrian refugee played by Beirut-born Malek Rahbani. Expect the movie to become available on streaming services in late 2021, after a possible limited theatrical run. (Producers hope to get “Jacir” into theaters as well as festivals.)
‘Strawberry Mansions’
The new movie from former Memphian Kentucker Audley, is among the 72 feature films set to debut in January during a compact seven-day “virtual” edition of the Sundance Film Festival.
A reunion for co-writers-directorsactors Audley and Albert Birney, who previously collaborated on 2017’s gorilla-coming-of-age story, “Sylvio,” the new movie is set in “a world where the government records and taxes dreams.” (In an interview, Audley cited “The Neverending Story” as an inspiration.)
Mastermind of the Nobudge.com website, an essential host platform for independent short and feature films, Audley — a regular performer in other people’s films, including this year’s acclaimed “She Dies Tomorrow” from Amy Seimetz — first earned film-world attention while living and making genuinely independent movies a little over a decade ago in Memphis, including the Indie Memphis Film Festival winners “Team Picture” and “Open Five.”
Missing in action (for now)
With the pandemic causing so much disarray in the film-production industry, a shooting schedule has yet to be set for the announced 10-episode second season of Memphian Katori Hall’s hit
Starz network series “P-valley.” As a result, new episodes will not debut in 2021, after all, Hall said recently. That’s bad news for “P-valley” enthusiasts, but hardly a momentum-killer in the modern era of “prestige TV”: Fans have become used to delays of close to two years for such shows as “Game of Thrones” and “Stranger Things.”
Set in “Chucalissa, Mississippi” (named for the Memphis Native American archeological site) but shot in Georgia, “P-valley” chronicles the literal and emotional ups and downs of the dancers at The Pynk, a Delta strip club; the show, in contrast, has been on top since its July 12 debut, earning record ratings for Starz and a rare 100% “fresh” approval rating from critics on the Rotten Tomatoes website, where it is identified as
“a stunning, lyrical piece of neon noir” that celebrates “the beauty of the craft without sugarcoating the challenges.”
The success of “P-valley” was just one highlight in a staggering year for playwright-turned-media mogul Hall, the program’s creator and showrunner: In October, she was nominated for two Tony Awards, as a co-writer and a producer of Best Musical nominee “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical,” and in December, Lionsgate Television announced that it had signed Hall to a project development deal that includes funding for an initiative to commission work by Black playwrights.
Originally announced for 2021, an upcoming Jerry Lee Lewis documentary should get a lot of attention, if it arrives: The announced directors are respected musician T Bone Burnett and Oscar-winning “Thelma and Louise” scripter Callie Khouri, while the producers include Mick Jagger and the late millionaire investor Steve Bing, who had financed Lewis’ most recent albums.
Photos of Jagger and Bing with Lewis on a visit to Sun Studio in 2018 generated a lot of excitement, and the film seemed a sure thing when cameras captured Lewis recording new covers of classic gospel songs earlier this year at Nashville’s East Iris Studios, with Burnett producing the sessions; but no updates about the project have been forthcoming. Bing’s June 22 suicide at the age of 55 may have delayed work on the film.