Universally beloved singer and actress Dolly Parton has just announced her next big project. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Parton is set to produce and star in Run, Rose, Run, a movie based on the novel by the same name that was released earlier this month. Along with to-writing the book with James Patterson, Parton also released a companion album for the novel with new music, serving as her 48th studio album.
Parton and Patterson have teamed up with Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine to produce the feature. All three will be producing with Lauren Neustadter and Ashley Strumwasser executive producing. Witherspoon has released a statement commenting on her involvement with the project.
"Growing up in Nashville, I've loved Dolly since the moment I heard her magical voice and saw her luminous personality shine onstage," Witherspoon said. "Beyond her magnetic presence as an artist and performer, she is one of the greatest songwriters and storytellers of our time. Her impact knows no bounds — as a musician, actor, writer, businesswoman, activist and all around incredible human being — Dolly Parton is not only an icon to me, but a true inspiration to women and girls everywhere."
She added, "My admiration for her grew to even greater heights when reading Run, Rose, Run, a gripping and heartbreaking book I couldn't put down. I couldn't feel more honored to be working alongside her and James to bring this remarkable story to the screen."
Run, Rose, Run follows a young woman embarking on a journey to Nashville with dreams of success in music. As the book synopsis describes, "The source of her heart-wrenching songs is a brutal secret she has tried desperately to hide, but the past she has fled is reaching out to control her future — and it may destroy everything she has worked for."
Dolly Parton Has Kept Busy With Her Acting Career
Dolly Parton is still making music and delving into writing, but she still finds the time for acting appearances. For the final season of the Netflix series Grace and Frankie, Parton will reportedly come in for a cameo. This will reunite Parton with her 9 to 5 co-stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. There had also been rumors of the 1980 film getting a new sequel as well, and while all three leads were interested in returning, Parton said in 2019 that the project had been scrapped.
"I don't think we're going to do the sequel," Parton told Entertainment Tonight. "We never could get the script where it was enough different than the first one, and that one turned out so good."
Parton added, "We're thinking we might do a completely different thing together, Jane, Lily and I. We may do something different altogether, but I don't think we'll continue with [the sequel]. All these years we've talked about doing a sequel to 9 to 5, but it never made any real sense. Until just recently [with] all the equal work for equal pay and all the harassment in the workplace [backlash] -- we decided that we are going to try to do another one."
Perhaps 9 to 5 Part 2 wasn't meant to be, but as we're clearly seeing, Parton is still far from finished appearing on-screen.