Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
I’m actually going to be in Memphis this coming weekend for a family wedding (and to drive my wife out to McWeeny Street, the only landmark from what used to be a sprawling family property), so I was surprised to see this letter show up in the mailbox. Memphis isn’t exactly a hopping hotbed of filmmaking, but it sounds like James Mangold is going for authenticity by shooting his film about the life of Johnny Cash in the right part of the country.
Beware... there are a few spoilers here concerning just what period of Cash’s life Mangold plans to portray in the movie...
Harry,
I went to the extras casting call today for Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash film, at a high school in Memphis. The casting director told the group that the movie was sad, very sad, because the early life of Johnny Cash “was pretty harsh.” She said it covered the years 1938 to 1968, and that Johnny Cash had seen a copy of a script and made notes to it before he died, telling the makers of the film what to emphasize. She said they needed a young boy to play his brother, who died in a sawmill accident at age 14. She said they were looking for a lot of males, to play convicts in Fulsom prison, and members of the U.S. Air Force stationed in Germany. They need a pretty woman to kiss Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) on the lips (this is her only task). A scene which involved Johnny Cash asking for some kind of pork product in German has recently been cut out. The film ends when June says, “Yes, I will marry you.” June is played by Mrs. Reese Witherspoon. The film will begin shooting at the end of June. The director is James Mangold. She said it was a smaller film, and that many of the people involved are working for lower pay in order to get it made.
I would also like to note that shooting in Memphis in July as well is local wunderkind Craig Brewer’s “Hustle and Flow,” starring Ludacris, with John Singleton producing. (Also, the similarly local and expert Morgan Jon Fox’s “AwayAwake.”) I would humbly suggest that Ludacris and Johnny Cash are spiritually aligned, and that while Memphis is somewhat of a corrupt backwater and, as a friend of mine always suggests, should take its rightful place as the crown jewel of Mississippi, it is a good place to film low budget movies involving lean and hungry musicians.
Please call me Felt Pelt.
Thanks.
Thank you, Felt Pelt. I’d love to be there for the Fulsom County Prison shoot. That’s got to be one of the high points of the film. Overall, sounds like good stuff with a good cast and a good director in place. If you end up working on it, make sure to check back with us, okay?
"Moriarty" out.
