Earlier than “Schitt’s Creek” turned a cult comedy hit, there was Braselton, Georgia—a small Southern city that Oscar-winning actress Kim Basinger as soon as purchased with goals of turning it into the subsequent Hollywood. Sure, she purchased the city. Issues simply didn’t go in keeping with plan. Learn extra about Basinger’s failed Georgia Hollywood plan inside.
In 1989, contemporary off a wave of stardom and blockbuster movies, Basinger and a gaggle of buyers paid $20 million for roughly 1,700 acres of Braselton, about an hour northeast of Atlanta. On the time, the transfer surprised Hollywood and confused a lot of the nation. Why would a film star purchase a small city in rural Georgia?
For Basinger, the imaginative and prescient was seamless. She needed to remodel Braselton right into a bustling movie hub and vacationer vacation spot, full with film studios, a movie pageant, and a cultural scene to rival something in California. It was an formidable plan that aimed to deliver jobs, infrastructure, and glamour to the quiet city. It wasn’t completely far-fetched. Georgia would go on to turn into a significant filming location a long time later. However for Basinger, timing was every part, and her gamble got here too quickly.
After a string of monetary setbacks, together with a extremely publicized lawsuit over her resolution to drag out of the movie Boxing Helena, Basinger filed for chapter in 1993. The fallout compelled her to dump the city for about $1 million—a fraction of the unique worth. Locals reportedly felt misled, and the dream of “Hollywood South” fizzled out.
Although the acquisition was a real-life cautionary story, it will ultimately function the inspiration for Schitt’s Creek, the Emmy-winning sequence co-created by Eugene and Dan Levy. The present follows a rich household who lose every part and are compelled to dwell in a small city they as soon as purchased as a joke. Sound acquainted?
Right now, Braselton thrives another way—extra of an enthralling Southern escape than a movie-making mecca—however the reminiscence of Basinger’s daring wager nonetheless lingers in popular culture lore.
Kim Basinger could not have turned Braselton into Georgia’s Tinseltown, however her actual property misadventure will all the time have a spot in Hollywood historical past—and within the fictional city of Schitt’s Creek, the place goals, disasters, and reinvention collide.
