'The Best of Enemies' director Robin Bissell will take the helming duty as the country crooner's widow Theresa Haggard helps with the adaptation of his memoir, 'Sing Me Back Home'.
- July 28, 2020
AceShowbiz - Oscar winner Sam Rockwell is in talks to portray country legend Merle Haggard in a new film the singer's widow is helping to adapt from her late husband's memoir, "Sing Me Back Home".
Robin Bissell will direct the film and work with Theresa Haggard on the script, while Deadline sources claim Rockwell will re-record Merle's 1960s songs for the soundtrack if he signs on.
Bissell directed Rockwell in last year's "The Best of Enemies".
The Haggard film will detail the singer/songwriter's rise from San Quentin Prison inmate to the country star Kris Kristofferson once called "the greatest artist in American music history".
Haggard was a teen tearaway, who escaped juvenile facilities across California and racked up crime after crime, eventually finding himself at San Quentin for Johnny Cash's famous concert at the prison.
Upon his release, Merle vowed to focus on music as a career and turned his back on crime.
If Rockwell is confirmed for the role, it won't be the first time the actor has portrayed a real person onscreen - he played Bob Fosse in the TV drama "Fosse/Verdon", C.P. Ellis in "The Best of Enemies", Chuck Barris in "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind", and George W. Bush in "Vice (2018)".
