Developer plans Tyler Perry-type entertainment production complex in Whitehaven

A team of filmmakers, lawyers and business people filed plans this week to create an 85-acre movie and television studio in Whitehaven that would be a Memphis-based rival to Tyler Perry's studio in Atlanta and to the historic backlots of Hollywood.

Dubbed "BLP Film Studios," the project is headed by the father-son team of Jason A. Farmer and Jason Farmer II, whose Black Lens Productions was founded about a decade ago "to establish Memphis as an inclusive mini-major entertainment hub," and to celebrate "diverse voices with a paramount focus on developing, promoting and empowering People of Color," according to the company's mission statement.

Plans filed on Thursday with the Land Use Control Board call for 12 sound stages to be erected near the southwest corner of Elvis Presley Boulevard and Holmes Road on land owned by BLP that is intended for residential use.

Located less than a mile from the Mississippi state line, the so-called "studio campus" would be as adaptable as an old-school Hollywood studio, according to plans. In addition to the sound stages, the campus is supposed to include executive offices, film editing suites, recording studios, a warehouse for props and costume, an "outdoor filming zone," a special effects facility, a commissary, and a hotel. What the application calls "heavy foliage" would help isolate the studio from surrounding residential and commercial development.

The facility would establish a new identity for Memphis as a "multifaceted landscape that is positioned to take on the role of America’s freshest filmmaking epicenter," according to the BLP website. If realized, the studio would provide "good paying jobs using Memphis talent" and "be a big boast to the Whitehaven and Memphis community,” according to a letter of intent filed with the Land Use Control Board by lawyer Dedrick Brittenum Jr. (He presumably meant "boost," but "boast" works, too.)

"Upon completion," Brittenum's letter continues, "the BLP multimedia facility will be one of the most advanced state of the art facilities anywhere in the world, rivaling Hollywood, Atlanta and London." 

In scale and ambition, the BLP project dwarfs similar preliminary efforts to bring the production of movies, TV programs and streaming content to Memphis on a more regular basis, including separate plans to convert the old Malco Majestic cinema and the Memphis Masonic Temple into sound stages. In addition, Joel Weinshanker, majority owner of Elvis Presley Enterprises, has long hoped to establish a production sound stage in Whitehaven, on the Graceland campus.

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'Excited about the possibilities'

A lifelong Memphian who has been active in such projects as the redevelopment of historic Clayborn Temple, the elder Farmer became interested in filmmaking due to the enthusiasm of his son, who hopes to be a director. T

The Farmers have been involved in various capacities on several local film and television projects and have participated in the Indie Memphis Film Festival, but — unlike Tyler Perry, already a multimillionaire and veteran stage, film and television artist by the time he established his 330-acre studio in Atlanta in 2019 — they have no credits in the industry to match the ambitious scale of their BLP Film Studios plan.

On the other hand, Perry and other soundstage operators have proved that film producers happily will leave the traditional production centers of New York and Los Angeles for the South, if those locations provide enough incentive, economic and otherwise.

Memphis and Shelby County Film & Television Commissioner Linn Sitler said commission representatives have talked with Farmer about his plan, and "are excited about the possibilities." In addition, local and state legislators have worked to boost film production incentives in Tennessee, in hopes of attracting another "Nashville" or "Bluff City Law," but also to lure some of the production opportunities that might leave Georgia as filmmakers balk at new state laws establishing stricter voting guidelines. 

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However, the "if you build it, they will come" philosophy does not necessarily apply to film and television production. The multimillion dollar projects that brought such Oscar-winning directors and major stars as Francis Ford Coppola and Tom Cruise to Memphis in the 1990s came to the city because the stories made sense for Memphis.

While sound stages are necessary for much traditional content, from sitcoms to blockbuster franchises to "prestige television" series, filmmakers increasingly have demonstrated that popular and influential work can be produced on a smaller scale with nimbler technology. For example, "Tangerine," one of the most acclaimed films of 2015, was shot on location on the streets of Los Angeles with smartphones.

Meanwhile. some artists have gone from one extreme to the other. Craig Brewer made his first feature, "The Poor & Hungry," on digital video on location in Memphis, but his most recent film, "Coming 2 America," with Eddie Murphy, mostly was shot in Atlanta, at Tyler Perry's studio. 

The Black Lens Productions studio website lists eight "visionary professionals" as creative partners with the Farmers. Christie Taylor, host of "The Christie Taylor Show" podcast, is listed as a studio "writer," while Fenton E. Wright of The Consortium MMT, the music industry development company headed by veteran songwriter David Porter, is a "strategic partner." 

The application, which seeks Land Use Control Board approval for the studio development, does not mention a cost for the project. Reached for comment, Farmer was not able to talk about the project in time for this story's deadline.