CMT Blog: Movies

Everyone's already been talking, blogging, writing and podcasting about the fact that Taylor Lautner (Jacob Black from the Twilight movies) was at Taylor Swift's Chicago show on Friday (Oct. 9). But I was actually there, so at first I thought I'd give you my perspective on things. Then I thought, better yet, I'll give you my teenage daughter's perspective on things. So here's a recap of the night from my 14-year-old's point of view, as she was getting ready to meet Taylor Swift.

Maddy: Oh my God. She so tall. She is SO TALL. What's that sign around her neck say? "Voice Rest :( Have a nice day? :)" She can't talk? Oh my God. Oh my God. What should I say to her? She's so pretty. She's being so nice to everyone. Oh my God. We're next. WHAT AM I GOING TO SAY???

Read more...

Well, technically, Jennifer Aniston is not going country. She's just acting country. But she is going to actually sing and play a resonator guitar in a new movie. And all I can say is, if she plays as well as she sings, she might just have a career in this. Watch her sing "I've Got a Crush on You" to Ellen DeGeneres. It's all part of her role in a film she's about to start shooting called The Goree Girls. A quick synopsis: It's based on the true story of a group of women in jail in the 1940s. The only way to escape or be pardoned was to be on a radio show called Twenty Minutes Behind Walls. So they teach themselves to sing and play music and form one of the first country girl bands. Aniston tells DeGeneres, "They were like the Dixie Chicks of their time." There's no word on what the girls were originally incarcerated for. But if there's country music and Aniston in a movie about tough girls, I am in. 

Photo credit: Mark Rolston/AFP

First, he got a taste of the TV bug on Celebrity Apprentice. Then he had a part in last year's An American Carol. And now the multi-faceted Trace Adkins is going full-on silver screen. He's joined the cast of this cool new film called Lifted, which is about a talented singer named Henry Matthews who has to find a different road to success when his Marine dad is deployed to Afghanistan. His road is through a faux show, Teen Starquest, where Adkins plays a country star turned singing-competition judge. (Sound familiar?) Ruben Studdard, of American Idol fame, is in the movie, too. It's currently being shot in Birmingham, Ala., even though Adkins is currently on tour pretty much everywhere else. The film is expected in September 2010.

On Wednesday (Aug.19), I went to see Any Day Now, a documentary that followed the 2008 Ten out of Tenn tour, and left feeling a renewed sense of pride for the music scene here in Nashville. The film features Butterfly Boucher, Andy Davis, Katie Herzig, Griffin House, Tyler James, Matthew Perryman Jones, Jeremy Lister, Will Sayles, Erin McCarley, K.S. Rhoads and Trent Dabbs, but every year the tour spotlights different independent Tennessee artists, and is the brainchild of Dabbs and his wife, Kristen. Basically 10 musicians pile on a bus and become something of an indie super-group, touring the country to show off the unknown music coming out of Nashville. Any Day Now was a fascinating look at the show they put together, but more interesting was the stuff that happened after, and in between, their gigs.

Read more...

Of all the early '90s movies you could choose to make into a Broadway musical, why would you pick Pure Country? And why would you go ahead with plans to cast it and produce it even though a similarly-themed show packed with country music had its full Broadway run cut short? God only knows. But Joe Nichols and Lorrie Morgan are all set to hit the stage for the Broadway version of the 1992 movie starring George Strait. Nichols and Morgan will play Dusty (who will now be named Rusty, but will always be Dusty to me) and Lula, respectively. This just after the announcement that the production of the Tony-nominated 9 to 5: The Musical will close earlier than planned. One thing Pure Country has going for it, besides Nichols and Morgan, is that Grammy nominee Steve Dorff will compose the music. So that's a good sign. He co-wrote two classically Strait songs that were in the original movie ("Heartland" and "I Cross My Heart").

To most, the word Entourage brings to mind the popular HBO series with the overconfident agent Ari, played by Jeremy Piven. Yesterday (July 13), when Piven's new film, The Goods: Live Hard. Sell Hard, premiered in Nashville, he and fellow cast members walked the red carpet along with several country music artists. Most of the artists talked to reporters about meeting Piven in person and their devotion to the HBO series -- but what I found the most interesting was what Jimmy Wayne told me about Entourage: "I'm trying to figure out what that even means," said Wayne, pictured with comic actor David Koechner.

Read more...

You may not know this, but Hazel Smith not only writes her Hot Dish column for CMT.com, she also hosts a video series of the same name on CMT Mobile. As always, Hazel dishes on all the latest news in country music, basically telling it like it is -- for better or worse. She can be very candid, and I have to admit she still surprises me from time to time with what comes out of her mouth. I never imagined she would ever talk on camera about an artist like Michael Jackson, but his death definitely made an impression on her. The usually sassy host of CMT's Southern Fried Flicks was moved by his passing and was swept away with emotion. Watch the clip and view all of her Hot Dish clips on CMT Mobile, available on Verizon V CAST, AT&T CV and Alltel TV on Demand.

Well if the T-Pain and Taylor Swift thing is true, I suppose anything is possible. After all, the guy who played Ayel (Clifton Collins Jr.) in the most recent Star Trek movie is the same guy who's been collaborating with the Zac Brown Band. In a behind-the-camera kind of way. Collins shot the "Chicken Fried" and "Whatever It Is" videos, and "Chicken Fried" earned two CMT Music Award nominations. So don't jump to the conclusion that Zac Brown is just pulling a Brad Paisley and grabbing just any Trekky off the street to star in his videos. From the looks of these videos, Collins clearly knows what he's doing. Plus, the award show is on June 16, which is Collins' birthday. Wish them luck.

My prayers have been answered. That's because "Unanswered Prayers," a longtime favorite Garth Brooks song of mine, is being turned into a movie. I've always thought the story in those lyrics was deserving of something more that just a three and-a-half minute tune. It's all about outgrowing regrets and being happy your life didn't turn out the way you'd originally wished. So I can't wait to see what Brooks and Lifetime come up with, even if it means waiting until it airs in 2010. I don't know how they chose that particular song, because so many of Brooks' hits would've made good movie titles. And I'm guessing other artists have songs worthy of a movie or miniseries. Kenny Chesney's "The Good Stuff," Carrie Underwood's "Don't Forget to Remember Me" and Tim McGraw's "I've Got Friends That Do" come to mind. How ‘bout you?

Photo credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

With the Nashville Film Festival in town, there are plenty of chances to put your Netflix queue on hold and see what's going on with modern film making. Yesterday (April 20), some colleagues and I were treated to a screening of Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, a documentary that swirls around Cash's fabled live album, and found that the film looks at the event as more than just a musical mile marker. Filmed in 2008 and available along with last year's deluxe reissue of the album, it delves into Cash's experience with the project and also how it influenced prison reform and affected the lives of the prisoners themselves.

Read more...