CHARLESTON, Miss.–The movie industry is alive and kicking in Mississippi and it seems like you hear about another every day. There’s one finishing up filming this week in the Tallahatchie County city of Charleston that has had residents getting used to living somewhere else for a few weeks: Juniper, Texas.
“Charleston is a wonderful small town that reminds me and my co-author of that area, so we feel like we want to make the town a character in the story and we were able to do that with Charleston,” said movie producer Dan Smith, who helped come up with the story of “Texas Heart”.
He said the movie is about an attorney who ends up running from the mob and lands in Juniper, A.K.A. Charleston. Places featured in the film include the Tallahatchie County courthouse and Charleston High School.
“And he encounters some really fascinating, small-town characters who end up changing his life in a really powerful and uplifting way,” said Smith.
But it wasn’t just Charleston’s look and feel that had the crew shoot in Mississippi. As with many projects that have shot in the state this year, it’s the state’s ability to offer financial incentives.
“Mississippi has a wonderful filmmaker-friendly rebate and production incentive program so that your dollar goes a lot further here. Texas doesn’t offer this at all. That’s why Mississippi and Louisiana are starting to attract more filmmakers than the big state of Texas, which is the subject of the film, and where we wanted to shoot.”
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He said the movie will take a while longer to wrap up post-production, which includes sound and visual editing and music composition.
The movie also stars a Mississippi dog, in addition to all the extras from Charleston. News Mississippi plans to feature the pooch in an upcoming article.
