Macon's Movie History and the Future of the Film Industry in Middle Georgia

Macon has developed a good reputation among filmmakers in the last few years but it actually has a much longer history as being used as a filming location. 

You may already know that the new Superman movie is currently being filmed at Terminal Station in Macon and will be a reboot of the original Superman movie series. "Superman" is being directed by James Gunn, who also directed the popular movies in the Guardians of the Galaxy film series. The film is scheduled to be released theatrically in 2025.

But "Superman" isn't the only movie about superheroes that has used the iconic Terminal Station for a film location.

"Black Widow" (2021) is another superhero film that was filmed inside Terminal Station. This makes the world of superhero movies a bit more complex though, as Black Widow exists in the Marvel universe rather than the DC universe where Superman resides. This interestingly means that Terminal Station, and therefore Macon, is firmly rooted in at least two separate superhero universes, which is kind of a cool fact.

The movie "42" (2013) was a biographical film about baseball legend Jackie Robinson that was filmed at locations like historic Luther Williams Field as well as on 3rd Street and Cherry Street in Downtown Macon. "42" starred Chadwick Boseman as Robinson, as well as Harrison Ford, and Christopher Meloni. The title of the movie comes from the fact that Robinson's jersey number,  number 15, was retired across all Major League Baseball teams back in 1997.

An older and less known film that used Macon's Luther Williams field as a background location is the 1976 sports comedy film "The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings". This movie follows business-minded African American baseball players in a time when racial segregation was the norm. This movie starred well-known actors like Billy Dee Williams, James, Earl Jones, and Richard Pryor. The film was a big success, earning $33 million while only having a $9 million budget, according to Wikipedia.

The Macon Centreplex has also recently been used as a location in a hit film.

The mockumentary "I Tonya" (2017), which starred Margot Robbie (from the huge hit movie  "Barbie") as the troubled skater Tonya Harding. According to a recent post in the Macon subreddit, viewers can pick out the scenes where the Macon Centreplex was used by looking for the easy-to-spot blue chairs used in the sports and event venue. "I Tonya" was also a hit, grossing five times the amount that was spent on its production.

The Tyler Perry movie "Jazzman's Blues" (2022), a drama about an unsolved murder, was also filmed in Macon. Visitors to Downtown Macon on Second Street, Cherry Street, and Mulberry Street could see the building "Fatty's" transformed into an eatery called the Sugarland Diner.

Another major superhero film was partially made in Macon: "Watchmen" (2009). It also used some of the same filming locations used in Tyler Perry's "Jazzman's Blues".

"Need for Speed" (2014), which was based on  Electronic Arts’s video game franchise of the same name, starred Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul. It also starred the actor who has played both Batman and Beetlejuice, Michael Keaton. "Need for Speed" used locations in Downtown to film as well.

Finally, this article is by no means exhaustive. The Netflix film "Hillbilly Elegy" (2020) used locations downtown as did "The Color Purple" (2023) was filmed there too. Both films made buildings and streets appear to be from the long ago past. The horror film "The Crazies" (2010) actually used Fountain Carwash as a filming location. 

A very realistic-looking, old-timey gas station was built on Third Street for "The Color Purple"  (Photographer Nate Weeks)

The film industry recognized Macon's potential for filming multiple times in the past. The future of Macon and Middle Georgia as a filming/production location is even more full of promise than the past was. 

Middle Georgia colleges are now offering more for those who want to grow a career in the film industry. Georgia offers very desirable tax credits and Macon's lower costs mean Middle Georgia one day may be referred to as the new "Hollywood of the South" (although Atlanta currently holds that distinction).

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Thank you to the users of the knowledgable "Redditors" on Reddit.com's Macon subreddit for the idea for this article. They were the original source of many of the films and locations mentioned in this article.

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