Wednesday, Mar. 29, 2023–10:36 a.m.
-Jeremy Stewart, Polk County Standard Journal-
After several days of setting up locations around downtown Cedartown for scenes in the Tyler Perry movie “Six Triple Eight,” the filming of them took just a few short hours on Tuesday.
The Netflix feature tells the true story of the only all-black, all-female World War II battalion faced with the task of sorting through and fixing a three-year backlog of undelivered mail to U.S. troops fighting in the war.
Vintage cars and several extras dressed in period clothing added to the work done by crews over the last two weeks to a group of storefronts in the heart of Main Street for exterior scenes filmed in the historic district.
The action was located on a stretch of Main Street, which was covered in a thin layer of dirt for the filming, as well as in front of Polk County Courthouse No. 1 and in the alley between Stubbs Street and Herbert Street. Filming in downtown Cedartown wrapped around 1 p.m.
The front of the courthouse stood in for Harristown High School, with the cars displaying Pennsylvania license plates from the era.
Kerry Washington and Oprah Winfrey are starring, with Washington also serving as executive producer. Perry adapted the screenplay from Kevin M. Hymel’s article about the battalion that was published in WWII History Magazine.
The movie’s cast also includes Ebony Obsidian, Milauna Jackson, Kylie Jefferson, Shanice Shantay, Dean Norris, Sam Waterston, and Susan Sarandon.
While none of the more familiar stars were spotted in the short amount of filming done Tuesday, Perry was on set and seen giving directions to his actors as well as checking camera setups for scenes being filmed.
Main Street is scheduled to remain closed through 6 a.m. Wednesday with work to remove props and set dressing from around the area scheduled to last until April 14. However, work was already underway to remove the dirt off the section of Main Street minutes after filming was done on that set.
The Polk County Standard Journal has more photos and details.