MUSIC NEWS - Multiple Grammy winner and Oscar-nominated producer, musician and songwriter T Bone Burnett will be the executive musical producer and an executive producer for Lionsgate's new "Tough Trade," the first original series pilot for EPIX, it was announced today by EPIX President and CEO Mark Greenberg and Lionsgate Music President Jay Faires. Epix is the new multiplatform entertainment service from Viacom, Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and Lionsgate, with plans to be the leading next generation studio, and was launched on October 30, 2009.
"Tough Trade" is said to be a provocative, contemporary one-hour drama about a three-generation Nashville, TN music dynasty whose desire 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" will look to bring 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.
T Bone Burnett is, of course, renowned for his exceptional and wide-ranging work as a producer, musician and songwriter. He's won five Grammy Awards for his work on O Brother, Where Art Thou? for which he wrote the score and produced the multiplatinum soundtrack, which also gave us highly successful national concert tours, and he won Grammys for his work with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. In 2002 he was honored with the Grammy Award for Non-Classical Producer of the Year and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song for "The Scarlet Tide" from the film Cold Mountain. He oversaw the music for the Grammy Award-winning platinum soundtrack to the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line and cult classic Coen Brothers film The Big Lebowski and has produced such artists as Roy Orbison, The Wallflowers, k.d. lang and Counting Crows. Songs performed by Burnett have been covered by Emmylou Harris, Arlo Guthrie, Warren Zevon and many others.
The addition of Burnett adds to the stellar cast which includes playwright and actor Sam Shepard (Lionsgate and Relativity Media's Brothers, The Assassination of Jesse James, The Right Stuff), who will portray the patriarch of the Tucker family. The creative team is led by executive producer and showrunner Jenji Kohan (Lionsgate's "Weeds"). The pilot was written by creator/co-executive producer Chris Offutt ("True Blood," "Weeds") and will be directed by Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Rendition, the Oscar nominee Tsotsi). Production begins shooting on December 3, 2009 in Nashville.
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