According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, the Dolly Parton biopic spent $6.4 million in Georgia.
Georgia’s film industry is booming and that means producers are pooring millions into Georgia, which is a good thing. Georgia’s film incentives provide job opportunities, business growth, and boost tourism in the state.
The NBC Dolly Parton biopic, The Coat of Many Colors focuses on Dolly Parton’s upbringing as her family struggles to live in the Tennessee Smokey Mountains. Dolly aspires to become something great but is forced to deal with family troubles, including the premature birth and death of a baby brother. Dolly’s mother, Avie Parton uses the baby’s blanket to make Dolly her patchwork coat of many colors. Although Dolly is at first proud of her new coat, she changes her mind after bullies pick on her. Meanwhile, her father is struggling with depression and financial hardship.
Dolly Parton opened up about the casting process. Starting with singer Jennifer Nettles, who plays her mother: “When she started reading I thought, Oh my lord, that’s momma. And, she is incredible … I didn’t even know she acted.” For her father, Parton already had someone in mind, Ricky Schroder, because “he reminds me so much of my daddy.” In casting the younger Dolly, several hundred children auditioned. Parton stated “God’s going to send her.” Alyvia Alyn Lind auditioned and could “sing…act” and “cry on cue”, said Parton, adding, “When she came in, it just kind of blew it all out of the water and she got the part.”
The NBC special ended up being a ratings success. When it premiered on Thursday, December 10th drew 13.03 million viewers and received a 1.8/6 rating/share in the 18-49 age demographic. That’s the highest viewership for any TV movie or miniseries in the past three years.
Even critics enjoyed the TV special. Ken Tucker of Yahoo TV gave the film its highest praise, stating “The pastoral nostalgia that this TV-movie taps into is powerful, if maudlin, stuff. This is the time of year when sentimentality can be a warming thing, and Parton’s Coat will keep an awful lot of people warm this winter.”
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