Reilly sings new classics for movie spoof

02/11/2007 21:48

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Following the success of "Knocked Up" and "Superbad," director Judd Apatow steps into the realm of the Rutles and Spinal Tap with "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," a music-driven spoof of such earnest biopics as "Ray" and "Walk the Line."

Apatow serves as writer/producer this time, with Jake Kasdan taking the directing reins, and John C. Reilly stars as the Johnny Cash-like Cox. The film opens December 21 in U.S. theatres, with its soundtrack arriving December 4 via Columbia.

The filmmakers worked with composer/producer Michael Andrews to record Reilly delivering more than 30 songs before filming began, mapping out Cox’s decades-long career by working their way from ’50s rockabilly to psychedelia to disco to punk to rap.

On the soundtrack, Reilly sings all 15 songs, which were penned by such names as Marshall Crenshaw, Van Dyke Parks, Dan Bern and Mike Viola.

"One of the challenges was that we were just trying to figure out how funny the songs should be versus how good they should be," Kasdan said. "And if they could be both things at once. It was about coming up with a strategy."

While the project allows Reilly to rock out, it also puts some rockers onscreen. Jack White plays a karate-chopping Elvis Presley, Eddie Vedder plays himself delivering a heartfelt testimonial .....continued below

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to Cox, and Lyle Lovett, Jewel, Ghostface Killah and Jackson Browne get screen time singing a version of the title track.

Reuters/Billboard

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