Not since 2018 has Nashville gotten this much screen time. That’s when the “Nashville” television series ended its seven-year run of filming in Music City, a project that helped boost both tourism and the local economy.

But in 2025, Nashville will be showcased in two new crime thriller projects featuring high-profile stars, one for the big screen and the other on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming platform.

Release dates have not been announced for either “Eugene the Marine” which filmed in both East Nashville and Green Hills and is now in postproduction, or for season one of “Scarpetta,” which will be shooting in Nashville into early March.

“Scarpetta”

Starring: Oscar and Emmy-winners Nicole Kidman (Big Little Lies, Expats), a Nashville-area resident, and Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween, Everything Everywhere All at Once)

Featuring: Bobby Cannavale, Simon Baker, Ariana DeBose, Rosy McEwen and Jake Cannavale

Locales: They’ve been spotted filming at the Metro Courthouse and a couple of Germantown restaurants.

Plot: Based on author Patricia Cornwell’s bestselling novels, the mystery thriller “will follow chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta (Kidman) as she returns to her former position in Virginia, where she must deal with complex personal and professional relationships – including her sister Dorothy (Curtis) – with grudges and secrets to uncover.”

Notes and quotes: Blumhouse Television and Prime Video executives are so confident in this project that two seasons have already been ordered for the streamer. Cornwell, Curtis and Emmy winning producer Kidman will all executive produce. Emmy-nominated Liz Sarnoff (Barry, Lost, Deadwood) will write, executive produce and showrun. David Gordon Green (Halloween, Stronger) is set to direct the first two episodes, according to a press release.

“Patricia Cornwell’s “Kay Scarpetta” has enraptured fans for decades and I am honored that Prime Video is entrusted to bring the series to screen for our global customers,” Vernon Sanders, head of television, Amazon MGM Studios, says in a statement.

“I have wanted to bring Patricia Cornwell’s “Kay Scarpetta” to a screen, with my company, Comet Pictures, for a while. I’m particularly excited that Nicole Kidman will finally bring her to life. I’m also looking forward to playing Nicole’s sister as we tell the story,” Curtis says. “I know the ardent fans of the books will be very happy and the new audience will be compelled by the characters, crimes, and mysteries that are the trifecta of Patricia’s masterful storytelling.”

Adds Kidman: “I’ve been pursuing Scarpetta for nearly 20 years going back to when it was intended to be a feature. … Patricia Cornwell’s epic and thrilling books feels like it was meant to be. I cannot wait to inhabit Kay Scarpetta and am so thankful to Patricia Cornwell for entrusting me with her.”

“I’m beyond excited that this is finally happening,” Cornwell, who arrived in Nashville in late October, says of the adaptation. “This will be great fun for all and I’m grateful for the immense talent that the show is drawing. I’ve always been a huge fan of Jamie Lee Curtis and Nicole Kidman. Their wanting to do this is humbling and simply awesome. Working with the brilliant Liz Sarnoff is amazing. Blumhouse and Prime Video are a dream. This has been worth waiting for, and I’m so looking forward to the show.”

“Eugene the Marine”

Starring: Annette O’Toole (Superman III, 48 Hrs.) and Scott Glenn (The Silence of the Lambs, The Bourne Legacy)

Featuring: Shioli Kutsuna, Jim Gaffigan, Jeremy Bobb, Jeremy Childs and Willie C. Carpenter

Locales: Mostly filmed in East Nashville, Green Hills and Leiper’s Fork.

Plot: A former marine (Glenn) fights to keep his life from unraveling as his son tries to force him out of his longtime family home and a series of gruesome murders begin targeting the people around him (O’Toole, Kutsuna).

Notes and quotes: The action-thriller is directed, produced and co-written by Nashville native Hank Bedford, who now lives in New York. Bedford, who will be on one of the panels at Script-Com this weekend. Also among the producers is Nashville entertainment lawyer Anita Modak-Truran, a board member of the presenting Tennessee Screenwriting Association. Filming has been completed and Bedford is presently working on a distribution deal.

In a recent email interview with the Ledger, Bedford shares advice for writers/filmmakers and fondly recalls growing up in Nashville.

“The reason this (project) means so much to me is because “Eugene the Marine” really is a love letter to my 8-year-old self, wandering through those video stores. The character Parks in the film is named after my babysitter (Mrs. Parks). The character Gene is heavily based on my grandfather, Carl Reid (who lived in Sewanee).

“I saw E.T. at a theater on White Bridge Road near Dalts and that completely changed my life. After that I spent endless hours in The Video Station in Green Hills (my favorite video store; they had VHS, Beta and Laser Discs) and Blockbuster in Green Hills. Neither exist anymore.”

Some of Bedford’s filmmaking/writing advice:

For independent filmmakers: “Be prepared to put a significant amount of time and reps in before you see any results. Don’t dip your toe in the water; you have to dive in. Be ready for everyone to doubt you, including yourself and never, never give up.

“I read a quote every morning before filming from ‘Cassavetes On Cassavetes’ that goes, ‘Say what you are. Not what you would like to be. Not what you have to be. Just say what you are. And what you are is good enough.’ Also, Tarantino has a quote that is something like, ‘If you truly love cinema with all your heart and with enough passion, you can’t help but make a good movie.’ I identify with and believe fully in those statements.”

For screenwriters: “I outline and then I intentionally write the worst version of a scene. Then I go over it and over it and over it. Each time my goal is to make the scene better than it was before. I do that for about a year. It can always be better and you can never be satisfied. I just do that because I worked with David O. Russell on his scripts and that’s what he did.”

On getting distribution: “I don’t know. Make a great film first. Once you have crafted and molded the film to be the best it can be ... find a hustler of a sales agent. I would not focus on the result of getting distribution, though. Make a great film and the rest will figure itself out.”

On raising money: “This is the hardest part and where most people wither and die. We went to over 100 people and got all nos. Never give up and keep knocking on doors and tracking down every lead. I sold books door to door for The Southwestern Company based in Nashville. That kind of thing really helps. The people who ended up investing came from such miraculously far-reaching and unexpected places.”

On tragic Tennessee memories: Bedford says the deaths of two friends who committed suicide, Tito Lee in 1998 and Wesley Bell (2001), influenced his 2015 debut movie “Dixieland,” which was filmed in Mississippi.

“I never thought I could be a filmmaker before (their deaths). It made me think that I’d rather try and fail than not try at all,” he writes. “Around the same time, I worked at a great video store near the MTSU campus called Video Culture. While I was there, I started thinking about making a film. After college I moved to Los Angeles. My first film ‘Dixieland’ is loosely based on Wesley. And the events surrounding his death.”