William Hurt cast as Gregg Allman in movie biopic

Oscar winner William Hurt has been aded to the cast of the upcoming Allman Brothers biopic as the older Gregg Allman. All American Rejects frontman Tyson Ritter was cast as the younger Allman at the end of last year (13), while Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn’s son Wyatt will portray Duane Allman in the film.
And on Monday (06Jan14), Hollywood veteran Hurt signed on to play the current day Gregg in director Randall Miller’s movie, titled Midnight Rider.
Miller tells WENN, “I am a tremendous fan of William’s work. I can’t wait to work with him.”
The director’s wife and screenwriter Jody Savin adds, “William Hurt actually helped start Randy’s career years ago. He made an anonymous monetary donation to Randy’s AFI thesis film. And when his identity was revealed, he even agreed to do the voice-over on the film.”
The film is based on Gregg Allman’s New York Times bestselling biography My Cross To Bear, and the blues-rocker insists the husband-and-wife filmmakers have their work cut out on the project.
He tells Rolling Stone, “The script will damn sure change, because I have veto rights over everything. Think about it, man. If you had them doing your life story on the big screen, wouldn’t you want to be able to erase anything out of there that you didn’t want? I can pull the plug on it any time.”