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On May 18, 1986, the movie Stagecoach was shown, starring Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. Willie wrote the title song, which is wrote with David Alan Coe, who is also in the movie, along with June Carter and others.

“We just wanted to do an accurate and loving tribute to Willie,” Thornton said from the red carpet, shortly before the start of the premiere. “He’s a guy that’s been a legend, especially in these parts, for a long time and we thought he deserved kind of a full-length documentary.”

– Billy Bob Thornton

http://www.kvue.com

by Noelle Newton

You may think you know Willie Nelson, but a new documentary called “The King of Luck” promises to show a side of him only those closest to him know. Director Bill Bob Thornton will premiere the film at SXSW Saturday night.

From the movie trailer you can tell this is not your typical, made-for-TV documentary.

Billy Bob Thornton tells KVUE the story of Willie Nelson from the two places any die-hard fan would want to go — Willie’s tour bus and his ranch called “Luck, Texas” outside of Austin. That is where the film, “The King of Luck,” got its name.

“Hopefully people will be entertained by it, learn something about Willie, and maybe how people can be so loyal and stick together for so many years,” Thornton said.

Thornton gave KVUE a personal look at the music legend through the eyes of those who know him best — his blood family and his band “family.”

Some of their insight is pretty funny.

“We’re like the skid marks in the underwear of life,” Willie’s former stage manager James “Poodie” Locke said. “We leave a little spot wherever we go. Sometimes it’s good; most times it is. Sometimes it’s not.”

Locke, who died shortly after filming wrapped in 2009, first introduced Thornton to Willie some 20 years ago.

Going on tour with the country music legend, you learn a lot about his personality.

“It’s not a wild bus contrary to what others may believe,” Thornton said. “He plays Wii Golf on the bus all the time. When he’s not doing that, he’s texting jokes to everyone around the country.”

Thornton did not want to make a “concert” type film, although he says you will see rare jam sessions, archive footage from the 60s, and even how Willie crafts that distinctive sound that is all his own.

“We’re in the saloon and he says ‘Check this out,’ and he plays a little bit of it to me. I said, ‘You just wrote that?’ He said, ‘I wrote that yesterday,’” Thornton said. “He just writes them in the moment. He sees something or hears something that interests him, and he writes about it.”

Those moments left the greatest impact on Thornton.

“It doesn’t matter how good you sound, you have to have a story to back it up. You have to have a song. Songwriting, at the end of the day, is the most important thing,” Thornton said.

“The King of Luck” premieres at the Paramount Theater on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Read article <strong><a href=”http://www.kvue.com/news/Willie-Nelson-Documentary-to-premiere-at-SXSW-Saturday-night-118268994.html”>here</a></strong>.

On February 19, 1987, Willie Nelson’s movie, the “Red Headed Stranger” premieres in Austin, Texas. Among those attending: Morgan Fairchild, Floyd Tillman and coach Darrell Royal.

Willie Nelson was asked about the violence in the movie, and about his character killing two women:

“If you like the song, the violence is there,” he says. “You can’t take out violence anymore than you can take evil out of books. It’s all part of life.” Adds Nelson, “This movie covers a lot of territory — from spiritualism to lust — and takes a man all the way to the bottom and back to the top. It does it to a preacher — which is a little bit unusual.”

Life Magazine August 1987 article by: Cheryl McCall

Making a movie of Red Headed Stranger, his 1975 chart-topping country album, was a powerful obsession that wouldn’t let go. From the beginning, its story of love and violence in the Old West was unfolding as a movie in his mind, says Willie Nelson. He dreamed of portraying the preacher-turned-killer on-screen. Universal Studios optioned Red Headed Stranger but eventually let it slip into “turnaround” — Hollywood limbo. So Nelson acquired the rights and spent the next five years shopping for financing. With fellow Texan Bill Wittliff – screenwriter and co producer of Country, Raggedy Man and Barbarossa — Nelson plunged into the risky business of doing their own producing.

Despite the pleading of his wife, Connie, Nelson stubbornly mortgaged property to raise $1 million for the 1879-style wardrobe, props and three Western sets. Friends and neighbors pitched in. Towns were built on land adjoining his private golf course outside Austin, turning the place into a studio back lot. Wittliff virtually ignored his book publishing business, Encino Press, to take on the chore of writing, co-producing and directing. Together, Wittliff and Nelson assembled a crew and pruned more than $11 million from Universal’s original $13.5 million budget.

Willie Nelson sprays on a little water as he and Morgan Farichild head west. Says the TV acress, “My character just doesn’t have the pioneer spirit.”

As preacher Julian Shay, Willie Nelson sobers up a besotted sheriff, played by R. G. Armstrong in a scene that both enjoyed in the scorching Texas heat.

They signed a native Texas, Morgan Fairchild, to play the preacher’s faithless wife and Katharine Ross (star of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), 43, as his salvation. The actresses agreed to defer half of their fees. As the cameras rolled, LIFE went on location with Red Headed Stranger.

“If Willie Nelson is going to kill a woman, anyone in America would forgive him for killing Morgan Fairchild in this movie,” — Morgan Fairchild

“In a funny kind of way, I just simply stepped into Willie’s dream,” says director Bill Wittliff. “It’s become an obsession for me, too. I couldn’t walk away from it.” The writer fleshed out the record album’s story of stern frontier morality with a script that explores the theme of love lost and regained against a backdrop of sin and redemption. The preacher saves a derelict town from spiritual squalor but pays a terrible price — everything he cherishes in life. By the time his rage is spent, a dozen people are dead. Nelson says he’s not the least contrite about killing two women in this film. Stranger” premieres in Austin, Texas. Among those attending: Morgan Fairchild, Floyd Tillman and coach Darrell Royal.

“If you like the song, the violence is there,” he says. “You can’t take out violence anymore than you can take evil out of books. It’s all part of life.” Adds Nelson, “This movie covers a lot of territory — from spiritualism to lust — and takes a man all the way to the bottom and back to the top. It does it to a preacher — which is a little bit unusual.”

Also unorthodox is the casting of Nelson’s grandson, his band’s drummer, the bass player and a bodyguard in speaking roles. Says Wittliff, “It’s really a homegrown deal. We pulled people off the sidewalk, from restaurants, stores or wherever we spotted them for this.” His Encino Press assistant, Connie Todd, put aside her publishing duties to audition more than 350 local folks. “When we found someone with a spark, we’d work with him or her for several hours,” says Wittliff. The creative gamble has paid off with lively performances from an Austin security guard, a waitress and a computer programmer.

It’s a measure of the loyalty Nelson inspires that his cast and crew are willing to endure 14-hour days on a location as hot and fly-ridden as Calcutta. What’s more, they are remarkably cheerful about it. Explains bit player Bo Franks, a cohort and gun collector, “I’m doing this for free. Everybody is here because they want to be part of Willie’s dream. We’re busting our butts because we wouldn’t think of letting him down.” From the Austin hatter who made and donated dozens of period hats to the realtor who lent a 19^th century water drilling rig, friends contributed what they could.

Says his daughter Lana, ‘Daddy has set such a good example for everyone that you don’t want to be the one to goof it up.”

As the end of the shooting approaches, day drags into night and exhaustion and tension mount. Mistakes are made, lines misbelieved, and the horses — spooked by gunfire — are edgy.

The only uncooperative member of the cast during the whole 39 days of shooting was a balky pony. “Willie, we got a problem here,” crackled a walkie-talkie. “The horse wants to know what his motivation is for pulling the plow.”

Nelson drinks cups of coffee and cracks jokes. Scenes are repeated until all the angles have been filmed. At 5:30 a.m., they break. Twelve hours later, after filming the preacher and the wife traveling west in a covered wagon, Wittliff and Nelson say the magic words, “That’s a wrap!”

The film opens next month, with Willie Nelson singing Red-Headed Stranger songs throughout his movie.