Chris Hemsworth (Thor) will be starring and producing in the film adaptation of a book that singer-songwriter Steve Earle wrote about Hank Williams.
According to TheWrap, Hemsworth has optioned the movie that's based on the 2011 novel titled I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive (also the name of a Hank Williams song). The work of fiction centers around a character named Toby "Doc" Ebersole who is accused of giving the legendary country singer too much morphine, ultimately resulting in his death. The story picks up 10 years later when Ebersole's life has gotten worse as he battles his own morphine addiction and Williams' ghost, which haunts the disgraced doctor from time to time.
"The characters in the book are characters related to Hank Williams, heroin and Roe v. Wade, but what the book is about — where it comes from inside of me — is about mortality," Earle said in an interview around the time the book and his album of the same name came out. "Steve Earle brings to his prose the same authenticity, poetic spirit and cinematic energy he projects in his music," Patti Smith wrote about the book. "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive is like a dream you can't shake, offering beauty and remorse, redemption in spades."
Since the project is still in the early stages of development, there's no word on what role Hemsworth will play. Benjamin Grayson penned the script and will direct the film as well. Laura Bickford (Traffic) will join Hemsworth in producing.
Interestingly enough, as Rolling Stone points out, Hemsworth's Thor co-star Tom Hiddleston will be portraying Williams in an upcoming biopic called I Saw the Light. Hemsworth's project will be the fourth Hank Williams film then, following I Saw the Light, 2012's The Last Ride with Henry Thomas as Williams, and 1964's Your Cheatin' Heart with George Hamilton as the singer.
