Gilley's, the storied honky tonk popularized by the John Travolta film Urban Cowboy, will be the subject of a forthcoming limited series.
Gilley's Club bore the name of country music icon Mickey Gilley— a cousin of both Jerry Lee Lewis and Jimmy Swaggart. The Pasadena, Texas venue was a football field-sized dancehall with a capacity of 6,000. At its peak as the "center of the cowboy universe," artists the caliber of Willie Nelson, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Ernest Tubb and Johnny Lee appeared at Gilley's as headliners.
"In a Walk the Line meets Bohemian Rhapsody biographical drama, this series will chronicle the behind-the-scenes true story of Mickey's career and the rise and fall of Gilley's during the late 1970's through 1990," reads a press release. "The story will detail how Mickey, a struggling country music singer/songwriter partnered up with local club owner, Sherwood Cryer, on a rundown dancehall where blue-collar locals, billionaire oil tycoons, cattle barons and some of the hottest names in music all mingled together."
A mysterious fire in 1990 burned down the original Gilley's in Pasadena. Versatile event space Gilley's Dallas opened under different ownership in 2003. The complex is the home of four music venues, three private party spaces and the Jack Daniel's Saloon. Attractions include El Toro, the original mechanical bull from Urban Cowboy
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The press release adds that "Michael Becker of Imprint Entertainment and Joel Carpenter of JCProds secured the exclusive life rights option and will executive produce. Additional executive producers include Gilley with William Morrow HarperCollins author Taylor Moore (Down Range and Firestorm) and Zach Farnum as associate producer. Philip Levens (Smallville, Syfy miniseries Ascension) will serve as executive producer, writer/showrunner."
The Gilley's-related news follows confirmation that Urban Cowboy, a box office smash from 1980, will soon get its own television adaptation via Paramount+.
No details yet on which network or streaming service will debut the series or when we can expect the Gilley's story to hit the small screen.
