Steve Earle’s Hank Williams Book to be Made Into Movie

steve-earle-ill-never-get-out-of-this-world-alive-novelToday would have been the 91st birthday of Hillbilly Shakespeare Hank Williams, and we get news that a new movie is in the works based around a novel written by alt-country pioneer Steve Earle called I’ll Never Get Out Of The World Alive. The movie will be stared in and produced by Australian actor Chris Hemsworth, most famous for playing Thor in recent comic book movies. Hemsworth has optioned the movie rights to Earle’s novel, and Benjamin Grayson wrote the script for the movie and will be directing it—his first time directing a film. Laura Bickford of films such as Traffic and Duplicity has also been brought on board as a producer. The movie will be an independent film.

chris-hemsworth
Chris Hemsworth

Steve Earle’s I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive novel was released in May of 2011 by Houghton Mifflin. It is titled after a Hank Williams song that in an eerie twist of fate, was the last of Hank’s songs to be released as a single while he was still alive. The novel doesn’t involve Hank intimately, but follows the fictitious life of Toby “Doc” Ebersole who is defrocked after being Hank’s doctor at the time of Hank’s mysterious death on New Years Day, 1953 in the back of a black Cadillac. The story picks up ten years later when Ebersole is living in San Antonio, TX and is an unlicensed practitioner performing abortions and other illegal procedures to support his heroin addiction. Toby Ebersole is haunted by the ghost of Hank Williams from carrying around the guilt of killing country music’s first superstar.

Steve Earle
Steve Earle

No word on when production for the movie may start, or when it may be released. Hemsworth has a busy schedule coming up. He is currently filming the reboot of the Chevy Chase classic Vacation, and just wrapped up two more movies to be released in 2015: In the Heart of the Sea, and Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Hank Williams films have been all the rage lately, and so have recent actors in comic book novels starring in them. British actor Tom Hiddleston who plays the nemesis of Chris Hemsworth’s Thor character is set to star in a new biopic about Hank Williams called I Saw The Light that begins filming in Louisiana next month. Elizabeth Olsen, I Saw The Light‘s female lead playing opposite of Hiddleston as Hank’s wife Audrey, is also cast in Avengers: Age of Ultron. I Saw The Light has received criticism from Hank’s grandson Hank3 and others for casting a non American in the role. Another Hank Williams movie The Last Ride was released in 2013.

Steve Earle also released an album in 2011 called I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive. No word if the music will find its way into the movie soundtrack.

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