A decade and a half ago, John C. Reilly was instrumental in killing the musical biopic dead. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story mercilessly mocked movies like Walk the Line and Ray, and strike their troops so destructively that no one dared make them for years. But one day they were to rise from the dead. And so they have. The last few years have seen movies like Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocket man, about Queen and Elton John, earn a wealth of money, all the while reviving the clichés that once made the genre ripe for satire. So why has no one done one yet about Dolly Parton? Dolly Parton would like to know.
According to CNN, the country music goddess, also an occasional movie star and amusement park owner, appeared last month on the radio program Mr. Nashville speaks, where she discussed her first novel, Run, Rose, Run. She also revealed that she is in negotiations to make a Dolly movie on the big screen.
“I intend to be on Broadway one day, but now I think I might be able to make my life story a feature,” Parton told host Larry Ferguson. “Maybe maybe even a musical feature, so we’m talking about it.”
Parton said a Broadway Dolly musical almost happened, but the pandemic delayed it so long that she changed her mind. Now she’s pursuing a Dolly movie.
But who on earth could ever hope to summon even a glimpse of the charisma of one of the great entertainers? Parton had some ideas.
“I love Kristin Chenoweth,” Parton said. “She’s just amazing.” But maybe Chenoweth, if she’s comfortable living in the shoes of the woman who wrote both “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” on the same day, would only be one of several Dollys. “We should probably have – as long as my career has been – as a little Dolly and one between Dolly and then the older one.”
So there you have it, Hollywood. Go ahead and make a Dolly Parton movie. In the meantime, you can watch the few films she has made over the years. Yes, even the one with Stallone.
You can see Parton’s Mr. Nashville speaks interview in the video below.
(Via CNN)