Sam Rockwell in Line to Play Merle Haggard in Upcoming Biopic
Merle Haggard's life is set to come to the screen in an upcoming biopic, tentatively starring Sam Rockwell.
According to Deadline, Amazon Studios have signed on for a biopic on the artist best known for hits including “Mama Tried,” “Workin’ Man Blues” and “Okie from Muskogee.” Rockwell — whose credits include The Green Mile, Frost/Nixon, Vice and Richard Jewell, and who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, is reportedly first in line to play Haggard, and would do his own singing in the film.
Deadline reports the as-yet-untitled movie focuses on Haggard's "tumultuous rise from inmate who served three years at San Quentin — where he was among the prisoners who watched the first prison performance of Johnny Cash in a life-changing moment — to the clubs in Bakersfield hometown, to Capitol Records in Los Angeles to becoming what Kris Kristofferson called 'the greatest artist in American music history.'"
Haggard’s widow Theresa Haggard will write the script alongside Robin Bissell, who will also direct the film. The two will also produce the film, based on Haggard's 1981 memoir Sing Me Back Home.
Theresa Haggard was Merle Haggard's fifth wife. They were together for 23 years and had two children together, Jenessa and Ben Haggard.
Merle Haggard Through the Years