If you thought you saw Tyler Perry on Beale Street this week, don’t blame the Handy’s Hurricanes from Rum Boogie Cafe.
The superstar actor-writer-producer-director was here Tuesday to shoot scenes for his new movie, Memphis and Shelby County Film & Television Commissioner Linn Sitler confirmed Wednesday.
The movie is titled “Joe’s College Road Trip.” The Netflix project began production earlier this month, with scenes also shot this week in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
The comedy-drama follows a grandfather and grandson on a road trip that includes visits to locations of cultural and historic significance to Black America. Perry, in a white Afro-style wig that is less extravagant than his famous Madea hairpiece, plays the grandfather.
In addition to shooting on Beale, the 54-year-old Perry and his traveling Tyler Perry Studios crew filmed outside the National Civil Rights Museum.
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Jon Shivers, director of Beale Street for the Downtown Memphis Commission, said the Beale scenes mainly involved the grandfather and grandson driving up and down the street in the vintage red convertible that is their road-trip vehicle. Shot on what was a somewhat misty and slightly rainy night, the sequence took “a few hours” to complete, Shivers said.