NATCHEZ — Mayor Butch Brown said Tuesday the recently announced James Brown biopic film set to film in Natchez is expected to create 300 jobs for the city.

Brown announced the number of jobs at the Natchez Board of Aldermen meeting and said he was pleased the filmmakers chose Natchez as a filming location.

Brown said the movie’s director, Tate Taylor, told him that Natchez has everything the film needs in a location. Brown said he thinks Natchez has the right people in town to help make the film successful, too.

“We have the best location people here. We have people who know about wardrobe, people who know about lighting, about history,” he said.

Taylor, who directed the Academy Award-nominated film “The Help,” officially announced Monday in Jackson that the James Brown film would be shot in Natchez and Jackson.

Taylor said every frame of the movie would be shot in Mississippi, including scenes set in Paris and Vietnam.

Taylor grew up in Jackson and now has a home in Church Hill, a community north of Natchez.

Mississippi Go. Phil Bryant said at Monday’s announcement the filming would begin this fall in Natchez and Jackson, including filming at the Mississippi Coliseum on the state fairgrounds, where James Brown performed a concert in February 1969.

The producers have committed to working with the state’s WIN Job Centers to hire extras and qualified crewmembers.

Variety reported Tuesday that actor Chadwick Boseman, who played Jackie Robinson in “42,” will be portraying James Brown in the film.

The film will depict James Brown’s life from when he was nearly 5 years old and will extend to 1993. Other than that, Taylor said people will have to “buy a ticket and come see it” to find out more about the movie.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this story.