Memphis film history has rarely gotten so fine a look as this piece by Chris Herrington in this week's Flyer.
The article, "From Mystery Train to Memphis Beat," looks at how Memphis has influenced film and TV, from "Mystery Train" in 1988 to TNT's new "Memphis Beat."
Key to the discussion, of course, is the issue of getting productions to shoot in town. And nowadays, that revolves around incentives.
Filmmaker Craig Brewer is quoted in the story as saying, "If you're a film commissioner anywhere now and you're talking to a producer about a project, the conversation no longer starts with 'Tell me about your locations.' It starts with 'Tell me about your incentives.' And if you don't have a good answer for that, the conversation ends."
