Country music icon Hank Williams is heading to the big screen - a biopic of the late singer/songwriter's life is in the works.
The star, whose life was cut short in 1953, aged 29, is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest artists in history, and is considered a pioneer of the American honky tonk style of music.
Now the Hey Good Lookin' hitmaker's life story is to be played out in movie theatres after bosses at Nashville, Tennessee's 821 Entertainment Group managed to win over warring half-siblings Hank Williams, Jr., and the singer's illegitimate daughter Jett Williams, who was born days after the legend died.
The production company has also secured the rights to author Colin Escott's book Hank Williams: The Biography, which will be used for script research.
The biopic, set to be distributed by Universal, has been given the full blessing of the Williams estate and will feature some of the legend's biggest and most memorable songs, including Cold, Cold Heart, Your Cheatin' Heart and I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry.
The film is expected to examine Williams' career and personal highs and lows, including his battle with alcohol and prescription drugs to combat birth defect spina bifida.
But, according to 821 CEO Eric Geadelmann, the biopic almost never materialised because of the sibling dispute.
He tells Daily Variety, "It took us almost five years to execute this deal, and people told us we were crazy to try because the estate was so fractured."
Williams was previously brought to life in the 1964 film Your Cheatin' Heart, starring George Hamilton.