Kevin Bacon returns to Atlanta for Hulu’s ‘Southern Bastards’ pilot

Kevin Bacon is back in Atlanta, this time to shoot a Hulu pilot drama called “Southern Bastards.”

The show is based on the graphic novels of the same name. According to the producers, it “follows a tenacious military vet (Erin Kellyman), who goes to Craw County, Alabama, to find her estranged father (Bacon). What she finds is a murderous hornet’s nest of organized crime run by the winningest high school football coach in the South (country star Tim McGraw).”

Bacon recently stopped by Atlanta’s independent Plaza Theatre to see Japanese psychological horror film “Exit 8″ and posted an Instagram video in front of the theater marquee. He called the movie “provocative” and the movie theater “very, very cool.”

“I love seeing theaters like this showing movies like that,” he said. “You need the movies and the movies need you.”

“Southern Bastards,” if Hulu gives it a green light, would be the second project in metro Atlanta where Bacon is working with a bona fide country star.

Last year, Bacon starred in the Amazon Prime horror comedy “The Bondsman,” with Georgia native and singer Jennifer Nettles as his wife. The first season received solid reviews but Amazon quickly canceled it. “The Bondsman” worked out of stages in Senoia, with Grantville playing the show’s fictional town of Landry.

Bacon shot the pilot of Fox’s crime thriller “The Following” in Atlanta in early 2012, but the project moved to New York for its three-season run. He also shot scenes for the “Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special” at Trilith Studios in Fayetteville in 2022.

The Georgia film and TV business has been operating at a slower pace the past three years compared to the previous decade, thanks to reduced spending by Hollywood producers and more competition from states and countries with comparable or better tax credit incentives.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently reported studio and equipment rental company Quixote is winding down its Atlanta business. And Oscar-nominated actor Josh Brolin has put his Atlanta home up for sale, blaming less work in the area as a factor.

Other projects currently filming, or about to film, in metro Atlanta include the Melissa McCarthy/Connor Storrie film “Turpentine”; John Cho’s horror film “Inground”; the newest DC “Superman” film; a Netflix “Scooby Doo: Origins” series; and the Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson movie “Lizard Music.”