“Satan is Real” Louvin Brothers movie looks like it’s happening

[Gina Willis]

Delighted to see the mention of Michael Daves in this week’s issue of The New Yorker, where a profile on actor Ethan Hawke described Michael coaching Hawke on voice and mando for his role as Ira Louvin in Hawke’s screen adaptation of the Louvins bio Satan is Real. It mentioned that the film now has financing, so it looks like it’s happening.

I still don’t know if I could stand to see mandolins smashed to pieces on the big screen, though! :-D

[Chief]

That would be so cool. Just read that book, and it was a trip. Those boys could sure write and play- and what a wild life! It needs to be on the big screen.

[Scotter]

The episodes on The Louvin Brothers on the Cocaine and Rhinestones podcast were crazy. I can't wait to see this. By the way, Hawke did a biopic on Blaze Foley called "Blaze" that I thought was really good. It's currently available on Netflix for those who live in Los Estados Unidos.

[bigskygirl]

Nice, looking forward to it. I like Hawke, he has had alot of varied roles and I liked the movie Blaze. Another movie I really liked was Crazy Heart w/Jeff Bridges in the lead role, the book was very good too.

[Gina Willis]

I can see why the Ira Louvin role would be irresistible for an actor-producer, given all the opportunities for scenery-chewing tantrums, drunken binges and mandolin-stomping blowups... The only danger is that when the lead actor also produces the film, there's no one to say "no" to them and sometimes they go overboard, to the detriment of the movie.

The train-wreck-of-a-musician movie is such a cliche by now that it even got a hilarious send-up in "Walk Hard: The Legend of Dewey Cox." I still break out in giggles every time I recall that whenever someone introduced Dewey (John C. Reilly) to another illicit drug, in the very next scene he'd be ripping a sink out of a bathroom wall or running down the street in his underwear like a wild man.

[tmsweeney]

I think my favorite part of the book was when they were so excited to listen to the new records their Dad bright home they used broom straws as phonograph needles,
The grandeur and mystery Roy Acuff's passing car had on young folk in the rural South is the shoes country music stands on.

[Caleb]

This thread reminded me that I’ve still not read the book, so I hopped over to my local library app and found it on audiobook and just downloaded. (If you don’t know about the CloudLibrary app, it’s a pretty amazing—and free—resource that many American public libraries are connected to. Tons of ebooks and audiobooks in the database.) Looking forward to the book.