Rejoice, ye Dragonflies! Your King has spoken. Tom Hiddleston was only cast as Hank Williams in I Saw the Light just one week ago. Then, just two days ago, Hank Williams’ grandson Hank III spoke out against the Dragonfly King, claiming that an English crumpet could never, ever play such a dyed-in-the-wool American, and that somebody needs to talk to Matthew McConaughey’s people or something. So, the Dragonfly King knew something had to be done. If only someone could make those bloody Yanks understand that Hank Williams is the Hillbilly Shakespeare and there’s only ONE man who can play any version of any Shakespearan character. No, Tommy thought to himself, I cannot leave this to some studio lackey. Tommy whispered to himself, “I will have to speak to the Daily Mail’s gossip guy Baz Bamigboye. That will settle it!”

Tom Hiddleston spoke exclusively to me about the hillbilly with the ‘crooked smile and a wary eye’ he’ll play in I Saw The Light. The movie will begin shooting in October in Louisiana, although Hiddleston has already started learning how to sing Williams’s doleful ballads with the help of Country & Western star Rodney Crowell. Tom will have to replicate those bluesy vocals and play the guitar. Hiddleston told me I Saw The Light will chart the singer’s life from his turbulent first marriage to Audrey Mae Sheppard in 1944, through his early radio career to his auspicious debut, in 1949, at the home of country music, the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. The film will get under the skin of Hank’s relationships with the aforementioned Audrey Mae, his mother Lillie, Nashville music executive Fred Rose, his band the Drifting Cowboys and second wife Billie Jean Jones Eshliman.

‘It will go all the way to his tragic death in 1953,’ Hiddleston told me. ‘He was only 29. In the intervening period, he wrote some of the greatest songs in the history of American music. The film is about the man behind the myth, the power of his music, the sheer voltage of his talent and charisma, and his formidable demons. He worked hard, played hard, lived hard — there were women, there was whiskey — but when he sang about being in the doghouse in Move It On Over, or about his heartbreak in I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, it came from an honest place.’

Marc Abraham’s screenplay ‘pulls no punches’, the actor added, and explores Williams’s ‘shattering, self-abusive relationship with alcohol and later prescription drugs’. The singer, who suffered debilitating back pain from a congenital disorder of the spine, died of a heart attack on New Year’s Day in 1953. Abraham, who will also direct, saw Hiddleston in Coriolanus and knew he had his man, even though the RADA-trained British thespian may seem an unlikely fit for the farm boy from Mount Olive, Alabama. But Abraham said Tom has the rare ability to ‘transform himself’.

Hiddleston adds: ‘Hank’s life has a tragic arc, but in simple truth, he was a genius: a star that burned twice as bright and lived half as long. It’s a huge role for me and a huge responsibility. I’m going to give it everything I’ve got. I’ve already started singing and playing every day’.

Rodney Crowell, the Grammy-award winning country music legend, is helping.

‘He came down to visit me over the Easter weekend in Toronto where I was filming Guillermo Del Toro’s Crimson Peak” and we jammed for a day or so. It was so exciting. We had some coffee and did some talking and then we just started playing. It was spine-tingling just to spend a day playing some of Hank’s greatest hits like Hey Good Lookin’ and Long Gone Lonesome Blues with such a gifted musician. He’s already expanded my vocal range and given me a few pointers about adapting my own tone to sound like Hank. Rodney has furnished me with his beautiful J45 Gibson to practice with. And he’ll be on hand throughout the shoot,’ Tom added.

‘But his poetry, his lyrics, ache with raw vulnerability and emotion. And he sang them with all his heart. They didn’t call him ‘The Hillbilly Shakespeare’ for nothing. How Hank sang and how Hank played – that’s the work I have to do’

[From The Daily Mail]

Are you happy now, doubters? Tommy is going to play Williams like a Shakespearen character. All is well with the world. I actually found it interesting to hear some of the backstory of what the film is going to cover – so, Williams was married twice? I wonder who they will cast as the two wives. Hm… I already feel bad for those actresses. You know the Dragonflies are just going to make their lives hell. Anyway… I enjoyed this. I’m enjoying the controversy around this project already. I hope it continues. I hope Tommy has to keep giving interviews every week to try to explain the Hillbilly Shakespeare to all of us.

Photos courtesy of WENN, PR Photos.