Critic's Notebook

T Bone Burnett Stays Busy (Big Surprise) With New Movie, TV Pilot

Speaking of movie trailers, check the above one for Crazy Heart, which will earn its release on Wednesday, December 16. The movie, which stars Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell, features Bridges in the starring role as Bad Blake, a down-and-out country singer looking for a new...
By Pete FreedmanDecember 1, 2009
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Speaking of movie trailers, check the above one for Crazy Heart, which will earn its release on Wednesday, December 16. The movie, which stars Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell, features Bridges in the starring role as Bad Blake, a down-and-out country singer looking for a new start, maybe, with some help from a nosy, meddling music journalist played by Gyllenhaal, natch. Looks like a keeper, at least by the looks of the trailer.

And of the song in the trailer? Well, that’s the theme song to the film, penned by Austin-based, gravelly voiced alt-country singer Ryan Bingham and Fort Worth’s own T Bone Burnett.

Indeed, the above film seems a fine setting for Burnett’s craft. But so too does another project on his docket, which follows a similar line: Burnett will serve as both the executive producer and the executive music producer for a new Lionsgate-backed TV pilot called Tough Trade. As for what the hour-long drama will focus on? Well, let’s hand that over to the press release:

Tough Trade is a provocative, contemporary one-hour drama about a three-generation Nashville music dynasty whose penchant for drink, debauchery and divorce has left them both morally corrupt and on the verge of bankruptcy. The family with little left is pinning its hopes on its former black sheep, a budding country star turned alternative rock heart throb. Tough Trade brings viewers behind the scenes and into the living room to expose the tragic and sometimes comedic secrets, scandals and sorrows of this unforgettable American family.

Sounds… well, pretty awesome, actually. Here’s hoping it gets the green light.

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Pete Freedman

Pete Freedman

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