Liv Ullman to Helm Mellenkamp & King's THE GHOST OF DARKLAND COUNTY Musical

Variety reports today that Liv Ullmann is confirmed to direct the John Mellencamp/Stephen King musical, The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County. The Swedish actress-director, who most recently made headlines for her direction of the Kate Blanchett-led A Streetcar Names Desire at BAM and The Kennedy Center, announced her participation in Darkland County on a Swedish radio broadcast.

Thus far, not official timeline has been set for the piece, which was supposed to run at the ALLIANCE THEATRE in Atlanta from April 15 - May 10 2009 before being postponed due to script issues.

Mellencamp has said of the piece, "I can tell what it's not going to be like: It won't be Jack and Diane meets Cujo. He's already written the story- it's very beautiful, more like The Green Mile. It's an American story about an American family. Some of the characters are 100 years old, some are 15. So that will give me the opportunity to write for each character in a different style. I ain't writing a bunch of rock songs."

He would later comment: "[It's about] two brothers; they're 19 years old or 20, maybe 18 or 21, who are very competitive and dislike each other immensely. The father takes them to the family vacation place, a cabin that the boys hadn't been to since they were kids. What has happened is that the father had two older brothers who hated each other and killed each other in that cabin There's a confederacy of ghosts who also live in this house. The older [dead] brothers are there, and they speak to the audience, and they sing to the audience. That's all I want to say, except through this family vacation, many things are learned about the family, and many interesting songs are sung."

The play, which according to Mellencamp will have a Tennessee Williams feel, takes place in the fictional town of Lake Belle Reve, Missisippi.

According to interviews, Mellencamp has written about 20 songs for the production.

The early feedback for the production has been strong. Esquire Magazine's Ryan D'Agostino, who sat in on a New York rehearsal of Ghost Brothers of Darkland County in the fall of 2007 commented: "Musicals aren't usually a guy thing. This one, though, is not only tolerable, it's good. It may be the first-ever musical written by men for men. There's no orchestra, just two twangy acoustic guitars, an accordion, and a fiddle. The songs are both haunting and all-American."

That Nashville Sound writes that the CD/book package for the show will be released sometime in 2010 and will feature major artists performing Mellencamp's songs for the show. Rolling Stone reports that Elvis Costello and Neko Case are among the contributing artists. It was later learned that Kris Kristofferson, Sheryl Crow, and Roseanne Cash will also contribute. The album will be produced by T-Bone Burnett.

Production of this CD project began in June 2009.

On the Album:
Kris Kristofferson as Joe
Elvis Costello as The Shape
Roseanne Cash as Monique
Will Dailey as Frank
Dave Alvin as Jack
Phil Alvin as Andy
John Mellencamp as Drake
Sheryl Crow as Jenna
Neko Case as Anna
Joe Frazier as Dan Coker
Stephen King as Uncle Steve
Glenn Morshower as Narrator

For more information, visit http://www.mellencamp.com/.

Liv Ullmann is a Norwegian actress and director, who rose to fame as the lead in 9 Igmar Bergman films. Ullmann has appeared on the stage and in movies all over the world. She has been nominated twice for an Academy Award and five years in a row the National Board of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle named her the best film actress in the world. Ullmann made her Broadway debut as Nora in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House in 1975 and has since starred on Broadway in Ghosts, I Remember Mama and Anna Christie. She has also appeared multiple times in London's West End, in Scandinavia, in Los Angeles and in Sydney in 1979 with Cocteau's The Human Voice. She has directed three feature movies and one short film, two of which were written by Ingmar Bergman.