Parton heads to Netflix
Country singer hopes series will inspire and entertain ‘folks of all generations’
Dolly Parton’s songs will be turned into TV dramas for Netflix.
Bosses at the streaming service have green-lighted an eight-episode anthology series, which will take a look at the stories behind Parton’s hits. The country singer will executive produce the series and appear in each episode.
The deal is similar to one Parton struck with NBC three years ago following the success of the 2015 TV movie Coat of Many Colors.
Parton followed that up with Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love, in which she starred as a prostitute.
“As a songwriter, I have always enjoyed telling stories through my music,” Parton says. “I am thrilled to be bringing some of my favourite songs to life with Netflix. We hope our show will inspire and entertain families and folks of all generations, and I want to thank the good folks at Netflix and Warner Bros. TV for their incredible support.”
Parton is also hoping to bring her larger than life 9 to 5 character, Doralee Rhodes, back to the big screen in a new movie Rashida Jones is developing.
Parton will return, along with her co-stars Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, for the revamp of the beloved 1980 office comedy that will advise a new generation of working women on how to deal with a sexist boss.
Jones is reportedly working on the script with the original film’s screenwriter, Patricia Resnick.
“I’ve been talking to Lily and Jane ... actually all these years, we’ve talked about doing a sequel to 9 to 5 and it never made any real sense until just recently,” she recently told news show Nightline. “We’re trying to get the script and all that. Everybody is very interested and we’ve all agreed that we’d love to do it if it’s right.”
Parton also poked fun at rumours of a 9 to 5 reboot last year, stating, “We better get after it. We’ll have to call it 95, not 9 to 5!”