Willie Nelson. Photo: Pamela Springsteen
Production is underway on a new docuseries Willie Nelson and Family, from Blackbird Presents and Sight Unseen Pictures, that will chronicle the extraordinary life and career of the country legend.
Emmy and Grammy award-winning filmmaker Thom Zimny and Academy Award-nominated and Emmy award-winning filmmaker Oren Moverman are co-directors of this multi-part docuseries. Nelson and his family and friends are providing exclusive participation and access to his archives for the series, and filming is taking place in Austin, Maui, Nashville, L.A. and New York.
The project was developed by Nelson’s longtime manager Mark Rothbaum and Blackbird Presents Founder/Chief Creative Officer Keith Wortman, who have collaborated on several award-winning film, TV and music projects. Executive Producers on the docuseries are Wortman, Rothbaum, Annie Nelson, Julia Lebedev, Eddie Vaisman and Leonid Lebedev.
“Telling Willie’s story has been a lifelong dream of ours, and we feel privileged to realize this dream with Thom, Oren and Sight Unseen,” says Rothbaum and Wortman.
“Words like ‘honored,’ ‘excited’ and ‘humbled’ don’t come close to describing the way we feel about being entrusted with telling Willie’s story. And what a story it is! We are celebrating the music, the career, the long road, the family, friends and history. But, more than anything, we are piecing together a narrative – one never before seen in its entirety – about an extraordinary man with a unique ability to bring people together; folks of all races, orientations, genders, political ideologies and musical leanings. These days, we sure could use the healing powers of Willie Nelson,” adds Zimny and Moverman.
At 88, Nelson is still going strong. In the last year alone he has led major online concert fundraisers for Farm Aid and the Austin Community Foundation and was the voice of 13 major sports leagues as part of the Ad Council’s national ad campaign on vaccination awareness. The legend also released a No. 1 album, That’s Life, that paid homage to his favorite Frank Sinatra songs, released his latest book Willie Nelson’s Letters to America, and was celebrated in a music special Willie Nelson: American Outlaw on A&E.
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