It’s Happening: George Jones & Tammy Wynette Series Starts Filming

So often we get hints and allegations of cool film or television projects involving country legends on-the-way, and more times than not they seem to dissolve or get forgotten before they make it into production. That will not be the case for the limited series George & Tammy, which is set to begin filming in Wilmington, North Carolina momentarily according to local reports.

Based on the 2013 book The Three of Us: Growing Up with Tammy and George written by the couple’s only child Georgette Jones, the series was picked up by Spectrum Originals in September 2020 after first being revealed in 2016. Spectrum Originals will air the series exclusively for nine months, and then will later be available on Paramount and ViacomCBS for streaming. There is no official release date just yet.

Playing Tammy Wynette will be award-winning actress Jessica Chastain. To play George Jones is presumably Josh Brolin, who was originally announced as George when the project was first revealed, and is also a producer on the project. But Brolin as George has yet to be confirmed in any of the project’s recent press releases.

I have a bit of a past and when they were trying to figure out who might be best able to best play George Jones, they thought, ‘What about Brolin? Who’s been to jail in the last 10 years? Let’s pick Brolin!” Josh said in a Conan O’Brien interview in 2016 when the project was first revealed. “I’m gonna do that with Jessica Chastain, who is gonna play Tammy Wynette. She’s amazing. It’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were married for six years between 1969 and 1975, but had a professional country music duet career for much longer. The relationship was both passionate and tempestuous, and will certainly make for quality drama, so much so they decided to extend it into a multi-part series from the original idea of a feature film.

David Hutkin and Bob Yari of 101 Studios are also executive producers with Josh Brolin. 101 is the same studio that is producing Paramount’s successful series Yellowstone that features many of today’s independent country artists. Abe Sylvia, who is best known for producing the popular Netflix series “Dead to Me” and Showtime series “Nurse Jackie,” is the creator of the series. The success of Abe Sylvia’s previous projects is the reason the project blossomed from a film into a limited series.

“I am humbled to bring this incredible story to life with the breadth it deserves and that the Charter platforms allow,” says Abe Sylvia. “Tammy Wynette is an American icon, and I can think of no one better to illuminate the woman behind the legend than Jessica Chastain.

More information on George & Tammy when it becomes available.

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