Johnny Cash Movie May Start Filming Soon

<br>MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) _ Producers of an upcoming movie on the life of country music singer Johnny Cash say they may start shooting in June. <br><br>The movie stars Joaquin Phoenix as the ``Man in Black''

Monday, March 22nd 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) _ Producers of an upcoming movie on the life of country music singer Johnny Cash say they may start shooting in June.

The movie stars Joaquin Phoenix as the ``Man in Black'' and Reese Witherspoon as his wife, June Carter Cash.

The movie is titled ``Walk the Line'' after Cash's 1956 hit, ``I Walk the Line.'' It is scheduled to cost 20th Century Fox roughly $28 million.

The movie aims to chronicle the late singer's life, from his days on a cotton farm in Arkansas in the late 1940s, to his early stardom with Sun Records in Memphis. It will also explore his troubled time as a superstar in Nashville in the late 1960s.

Cash died Sept. 12 at age 71, four months after his wife of 35 years, June Carter Cash, died at age 73.

Despite all the time Cash spent in Tennessee, Memphis is no lock to be the location for filming, producers said.

Linn Sitler, of the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission, says Louisiana is trying to outbid Memphis with tax breaks and incentives.