Chronicle of country music planned
Shout!, Country Hall of Fame to produce series
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The two entities will seek worldwide broadcast distribution. Shout! Factory, which has music and homevideo divisions, and the Hall of Fame will retain homevid and digital rights.
The individual segments will be thematically divided. On the slate are "The Roots of Country and Bluegrass," "The Honky Tonk Tradition," "Outlaw Country," "The Nashville Sound," "The Politics of Country," "Country Songs and Songwriters," "California Country" and "No Depression," a look at the alternative country music movement.
"Each self-contained original film will examine a crucial aspect of the heritage and the history of country in a way that presents this American music in a contextual framework that shows how what was once called 'hillbilly music' remains a dominant form of expression in American popular music," Neville and Leaf said in a joint statement.
Neville recently produced and wrote the Leaf-directed doc "The Night James Brown Saved Boston." Leaf's other credits include "Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile," "The U.S. vs. John Lennon" and "Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?)." Neville's music docs include "Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story" and "Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues."
Modern country stars will be participating in the films, providing their personal connections to the past. Pics will feature archival performances and contemporary ones as well.
Leaf and Neville will be working with a team of filmmakers not yet determined. In structure, the project sounds similar to one undertaken by Martin Scorsese that yielded five films on the blues and its history. Those films aired on PBS in 2003 and were released on DVD by Sony.
"We are always looking for new ways to reach and expand our audience and tell them the story of this uniquely American genre," said Kyle Young, director of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
The Hall of Fame and Shout! Factory, founded by music industry vets Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos, first partnered last year to create DVD collections culled from the museum's archive.
