Empire has always wondered what it would look like if you stood Lyle Lovett next to Harry Dean Stanton. We suspect it would look like one half of a stunningly detailed miniature recreation of Mount Rushmore. And now we’ll get a chance to find out, for the duo have just been cast in the drama, Open Road.
They join the already-cast Justin Timberlake, who really is giving this acting lark a damn good bash, and Jeff Bridges in the story of a father and son (that would be Bridges and Timberlake) who attempt to reconcile while on a road trip to visit their sick wife and mother (and yes, it’s the same person).
Stanton will play Timberlake’s craggy-faced grandfather and therefore, by extension, Bridges’ father. Lovett will play a craggy-faced Memphis bartender who lends Timberlake a sympathetic, and craggy, ear. Hang on, we’ve just realised – this means that Lovett and Stanton might not be on screen together! It’s not fair!
Filming is currently underway in Louisiana and other Southern locales, under the watchful eye of writer-director Michael Meredith.