Filming underway in the Capital City on ‘Muti’ starring Morgan Freeman

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - The stars of Hollywood are again shining in the Capital City.

A house in Belhaven is featured as the home of the lead actor in the movie “Muti.” The film also stars Morgan Freeman in his third film shot recently here in the Magnolia State.

During a scene shot Wednesday in Belhaven, actor Cole Hauser walked to the door of a Laurel Street home in a scene in the movie “Muti,” which is a South African word meaning medicine.

Hauser plays detective Lukas Boyd who is investigating a series of horrific killings with the help of Mississippi-native Morgan Freeman as professor Dr. Mackles.

“The director had specifically said that he liked Belhaven because we had done some scouting in the area,” said John Read.

The Madison resident is the film’s location manager.

“He said these houses I think would suit our character, our lead character is a policeman, a detective,” said Read. “And he’s the one that gets Morgan’s character involved in this case, and so he asked me to try to find something in Belhaven.”

“It’s just fun getting to see how they work,” said Hillary Zimmerman.

The Laurel Street resident lives across the street where the crew used his driveway during filming.

“I’ve been seeing a lot of people on production set up, and it’s kinda fun talking with them about what their jobs are,” said Zimmerman. “It’s amazing how many people it takes to do something like this for a project like this.”

As cameras rolled residents gathered, excited to see the movie making process.

“It’s kind of a neat thing in the neighborhood that that house got chosen because it was falling in and it got completely gutted on the inside, and that’s where we heard they’re filming a lot of it,” said Belhaven resident Denise Walsh.

This is Read’s third Mississippi film with Morgan Freeman.

He scouts locations across the state for filmmakers. Four of his last five movies were set elsewhere but were shot in the state because of its growing appeal to filmmakers.

“Now we’re getting films that can be shot anywhere, but they’re choosing Mississippi for a variety of reasons,” Read added.

Filming in Jackson wraps Monday.

Copyright 2021 WLBT. All rights reserved.