Loretta Lynn & Patsy Cline The Focus of Upcoming Biopic

photo: Brad Coolidge / Icon Entertainment Group

A film delving into the life and friendship of two of country music’s most iconic performers is set to be shot this month and released later in 2019. Called Patsy & Loretta, it will follow the careers of Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn as they intertwined in the early 60’s.

At the time, Patsy Cline was already an established star. Loretta Lynn was just getting started, showing up to Nashville with a $17 guitar. Instead of Patsy seeing Loretta as a potential competitor or replacement, she took the Coal Miner’s Daughter under her wing, and they soon became close friends, touring partners, and confidants, helping each other through the struggles of fame and familial problems.

Of course all of this changed when Patsy Cline died in 1963 at the age of 30 in a plane crash that also took the lives of Hankshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas. Meanwhile Loretta would go on to be known as the First Lady of Country Music, and is still recording and releasing music today at the age of 86.

Many familiar names are working on the Patsy & Loretta project, including Callie Khouri who wrote Thelma & Louise and was a major figure behind the recent Nashville television series. She will direct the film that will be shot on location in Nashville. Patsy Cline’s daughter Julie Fudge and Loretta Lynn’s daughter Patsy Lynn Russell will work on the film as co-producers. The script was written by Angelina Burnett, and the project will be executive produced by Neil Meron and Mark Nicolson. Sony Pictures Television is the studio for the film.

Megan Hilty, who appeared in the music drama series Smash as well as the theater adaptation of 9 to 5, will play Patsy Cline. Jessie Mueller, who won a Tony Award in 2014 for portraying Carol King in a musical will play Loretta Lynn. There is no debut date as of yet, but the film is expected to be broadcast on the Lifetime channel some time later in 2019.

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