Another film comes to Memphis

From today's story in the CA by John Beifuss:

Memphis director Craig Brewer will reunite with his "Hustle & Flow" star Terrence Howard, who will portray country singer Charley Pride, in a movie biography under a deal expected to be signed with Paramount Pictures.

Although Pride achieved fame in Nashville, Brewer said, "One of the reasons I went after this project is because I knew I could shoot a majority of it in Memphis." ...

The Charley Pride biopic -- to be produced by Southern Cross the Dog, the company founded by Brewer and his producing partner Stephanie Allain, with the participation of other producers connected with Pride -- could represent the first time Brewer has directed a film he didn't write. Brewer said he is too busy writing his next film, "Maggie Lynn," to script the Pride movie; he said he and Allain are looking for "the right writer" for the project.

Assuming a script is accepted, the movie still likely wouldn't be ready to go before the cameras until 2008.

"I want the project ready to direct after I do 'Maggie Lynn,'" said Brewer, whose ambitious slate also includes a possible broad-canvas film about the Memphis sanitation strike of 1968 that would link the city's music and civil rights histories.