CMT Cast Search: Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis & Carl Perkins 'Million Dollar Quartet'
The Tony Award-winning musical, Million Dollar Quartet, about the recording sessions with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins from 60 years ago, is getting the series treatment at CMT, and the network has just launched a casting call to find the perfect actors to play four of the biggest music stars of all time.
CMT announced the new project through a statement published on its website, revealing they'd be partnering up with the producer behind Hatfields & McCoys for the upcoming series, which will be an eight-episode drama to be released sometime in 2016, marking the recordings' 60th anniversary.
Starting now, CMT is hosting casting searches for the actors to play the aforementioned real-life roles as well as others like B.B. King, Ike Turner and Presley's then-girlfriend, Trixie. Auditions for different roles will be held next February 13 at Memphis' Humes Preparatory Academy Middle School.
The series is being called the "untold story of the birth of rock 'n' roll," and it will focus on the early careers of Presley, Perkins, Cash and Lewis and how Sun Records producer Sam Phillips help turn them into the people who would shape music as we know it today by mixing sounds of those times' R&B as well as country.
According to Deadline, the story is set in Memphis during the "tumultuous early days of the civil rights movement," and the original Broadway show was a big hit when it was time for the Tonys. Though losing in the best musical category, Levi Kreis, the actor who played "Great Balls of Fire" singer Lewis in the show, took home the prestigious award for his supporting performance.
"Million Dollar Quartet will capture the star-crossed Memphis moments which led to the most explosive pop culture movement of the 20th Century, the birth of Rock 'n' Roll," said the president of CMT, Brian Philips. "The characters are all larger-than-life, so casting is a daunting challenge, but we're counting on the magic of Memphis to come alive again! This is among our most ambitious projects ever, and we entrust it to a proven epic filmmaker, Leslie Greif."