As part of their multi-movie deal with Dolly Parton, NBC is currently at work casting the first film in the series based on the singer’s songs: Coat of Many Colors. The song itself is somewhat autobiographical, and recounts Parton’s mother having sewn her a coat made from rags passed down from other family members. Thus, the film naturally involves young Dolly, the recipient of said multicolored coat. NBC and Parton decided to take an unconventional (i.e. potentially viral) route in announcing the casting of young Dolly: convincing the young actress who’d auditioned that she’d come back to the studio to meet with more executives, then, instead, sitting her down with Parton herself, who’d then surprise her with the news that she’s been cast. And such is the way it unfolds, with the 7-year-old Alyvia Lind covering her mouth in glee for a good half of the video.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Coat seems to be a little more than a feature-length video of a concerned mother sewing. It’s, rather, “the tight-knit Parton family as they struggle to overcome devastating tragedy and discover the healing power of love, faith”… and a coat. The film, THR claims, is not about Parton’s performing career, but is rather a “faith-based” film about her family life when she was 9, set in 1955 in the Tennessee Great Smokey Mountains.
Lind has previously appeared in Transparent, Masters of Sex and Will Ferrell/Kristen Wiig’s Lifetime movie, A Deadly Adoption.
Watch the announcement: