You have my attention.
According to Deadline, Amazon Studios has locked in a Merle Haggard biopic starring the Oscar-winning actor Sam Rockwell as the Hag. If Rockwell ends up taking the role, he will sing all of his own parts.
Robin Bissell, who has directed The Best Of Enemies (also starring Rockwell) and produced The Hunger Games, Free State Of Jones, Seabiscuit, and others is set to direct the film, and he will write the script alongside Theresa Haggard, Merle’s widow. The story will be based on the Haggard memoir Sing Me Back Home.
The film will chronicle Merle’s rise to country music stardom throughout the ’60s including his release from prison in San Quentin, playing music in Bakersfield, and becoming the country music legend that he is today.
Of course, Sam Rockwell has delivered some phenomenal performances in movies like Vice, The Green Mile, Richard Jewel, and Three Billboards Outside Of Ebbing, Missouri, the latter of which he won an Oscar for.
And speaking of “Sing Me Back Home,” here’s a little Merle for ya.
