MEMPHIS, Tenn. — With movie theaters closed and more focus on streaming services, there’s a lot more attention on a movie made in Memphis that debuted Friday on Netflix.
“Uncorked,” starring Courtney B. Vance and Neicy Nash, debuts on Netflix at a time when people all across the country are sheltered inside their homes.
The upbeat story, set in Memphis, is about a father who wants to pass the family barbecue business on to his son. The son wants to travel to Paris to become a sommelier — a fancy French word for expert wine taster.
People in Memphis who watch will see familiar places and faces.
Mark Mobley jokes that you shouldn’t blink at the beginning — you might miss one of his two cameo appearances.
But his boss, A&R Barbecue owner Lashun Pollard has a speaking part. She plays the kitchen manager.
Pollard said movie producers asked them to audition because they are in the barbecue business in the barbecue capital of the world, Memphis.
“They have scenes at a barbecue restaurant and they wanted it to seem real,” Pollard said. “So I said sure, come on up here.”
Hollywood producer Prentice Perry also shines the spotlight on other Memphis sights like CC’s Blues Club and even East End skating rink. They transformed an old insurance building into a barbecue restaurant for the movie. It was modeled after the original A&R Barbecue on Elvis Presley Boulevard.
“It’s the original location and it’s more like a barbecue joint feel, and people like that. That old school barbecue joint,” she said.
Both Pollard and Mobley got to rub elbows with the stars. She hopes the movie is a hit, and she might get her wish, since stay-at-home orders are in place from coast to coast, and streaming movies is one of the few way people can entertain themselves.
The Memphis – Shelby County film commission had planned a cast and crew screening but canceled it because of the coronavirus outbreak.
“Uncorked” is streaming on Netflix now.
