Matthews to make acting debut in upcoming remake of classic children's tale!

Dave Matthews will turn from singer/songwriter to thespian next week, when he
settles down in the rural town of Tahlequa, Oklahoma, to make his acting
debut in a remake of the 1974 classic film Where the Red Ferns Grow.
Shooting is expected to last five and a half weeks, and the producers hope
to have the film out in spring of next year.

The movie is based on a 1961 children's book that tells the story of a
little boy, Billy Colman, living in Oklahoma during the Depression.
Matthews will play the boy's father, Will Colman, and will star alongside
Ned Beatty, Dabney Coleman and Renee Faia.

"It's a really simplistic beautiful story and we were looking for really
soulful actors that have a lot of natural charisma. And we were actually
intrigued by the fact that he hadn't done anything. Obviously he's got an
enormous amount of talent," said the film's casting director and
co-producer, Katy Wallin.

Director Lyman Dayton, who produced the '74 original, bonded with
Matthews almost immediately, and tells how a conversation they had driving
from Tulsa to Tahlequa allayed any fears about whether the rocker would
cut it as an actor. "The question I asked him was why do you feel like you
could bring something to this role not having actually done film?' And his
response is something that I won't forget. He said whenever he wrote a
song that really works, it was based upon pure emotion and honesty.

"He felt that, inasmuch as he had read the script and felt so strongly
about the plight of the character of Will Colman, and because he's already
been interested in things like Farm Aid [and had] concern and interest for
the people who were trying to work the land, he responded to it. And,
because it was honest as we talked, I believed it."

     Dave Matthews, the band leader of
"Under The Table and Dreaming" music fame will make his film debut as the
father to Billy Colman (Joseph Ashton) in "Where The Red Fern Grows."  The
remake of the Wilson Rawls' novel is underway near Tahlequah, Oklahoma, center
of the Cherokee Nation.

    The popular leader of the Dave Matthews Band had just concluded a world
tour to sellout crowds when asked to read the screenplay and consider playing
the role of the father.  Matthews flew into Tulsa two weeks ago and met Lyman
D. Dayton, the movie's Director, including members of the pre-production crew
already building the homestead set where the movie will be filmed.  "I fell in
love with the story," said Matthews, "and became even more excited about the
picture after meeting Dayton and the production crew."
 
Matthews joins, Dabney Coleman (Grandpa), Joseph Ashton (Billy Colman),
Renee Faia (Billy's mother) and Ned Beatty (the Sheriff) in what promises to
be one of the most exciting family entertainment film remakes of the
millennium.  The story, set amidst the splendor of the Ozarks in Eastern
Oklahoma, is about a young boy's desire to own his own red-bone hound hunting
dog which leads him to a new trust in God as he faces overwhelming challenges
in tragedy and adventure roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with
"Old Dan" and "Little Ann."  Legacy Entertainment brings to the screen a
family movie classic of a strange and wonderful power that's found only
in..."Where The Red Fern Grows."
 
The original screenplay was rewritten by Lyman D. Dayton.  Casting by Katy
Wallin of Katy & Company, Burbank, California.  Producers include: Katy
Wallin, Philippe Denham, Shelley Monson and George Dayton.  Legacy
Entertainment is a wholly owned subsidiary of Legacy Communications
Corporation, a Utah based multi-media holding company.
 
 
 

"And in plays to write the wire in
I'll come back again"