Country music’s glittering beacon Dolly Parton is trading the stage for the spotlight in a major way: Universal Pictures has greenlit From Smoky Mountain Cabin Dreams to Hollywood Glow, a sweeping biopic chronicling the icon’s rise from a poverty-stricken Tennessee cabin to global stardom. Announced Wednesday at a star-studded press event at Dollywood — with Parton herself emceeing in a custom rhinestone gown — the film promises to capture her unfiltered journey of grit, glamour, and grace. “I’ve sung my story a thousand times,” Parton quipped, her signature laugh echoing through the Pigeon Forge theme park. “Now it’s time someone else lip-syncs it — and honey, with my wigs, it’ll be a hoot!”

Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Callie Khouri (Thelma & Louise, Oscar winner for Best Screenplay), the biopic is slated for a November 2026 release, timed to coincide with Parton’s 80th birthday. Parton serves as executive producer alongside Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine and her own DP Productions, ensuring “every sequin and setback feels true to Dolly.” The script, penned by Hidden Figures scribe Allison Schroeder, draws from Parton’s 2025 memoir Songteller: My Life in Lyrics and hours of archival footage. “Dolly’s not just a survivor — she’s a creator,” Khouri said. “This film celebrates the woman who turned ‘no’ into ‘9 to 5’ and poverty into philanthropy.”

Casting buzz is electric. Emerging Broadway sensation Kerry Butler — fresh off a private reading for Parton’s Dolly: An Original Musical, set for Nashville’s Tennessee Performing Arts Center this summer before Broadway in 2026 — is in final talks to portray young Dolly (ages 10–30). “Kerry’s got the twang, the sparkle, and the sass,” Parton gushed. “She belted ‘Jolene’ in my living room and I swear, I saw my 13-year-old self staring back.” For mature Dolly, Oscar nominee Scarlett Johansson is circling the role, with Parton herself cameo-ing as a sassy narrator and singing coach. “Scarlett’s got the pipes and the heart,” Parton told Variety. “Plus, she can rock a wig like nobody’s business.” Supporting turns include Sydney Sweeney as a fiery Porter Wagoner-era Dolly and Timothée Chalamet as a fictionalized young Carl Dean, her steadfast husband of 59 years.

The plot arcs from Parton’s 1946 birth in a Locust Ridge cabin — one of 12 kids in a one-room home without electricity — through her Opry debut at 13, the highs of The Porter Wagoner Show duets, and the lows of her 1974 split with Wagoner (including the lawsuit that inspired “I Will Always Love You”). Flash-forwards hit ’80s Hollywood (9 to 5, her Oscar-nominated theme), the 1990s Dollywood empire, and 2020s triumphs like funding Moderna’s COVID vaccine ($1 million donation) and her Imagination Library (200 million+ books gifted). “It’s not a fairy tale,” Schroeder emphasized. “It’s Dolly’s real magic — turning hardship into hits, doubt into Dollywood.”

Production kicks off January 2026 in Knoxville, with shoots at the actual Parton family cabin (now a museum) and Pinewood Studios for recreated Music Row. The soundtrack, helmed by Parton’s Butterfly Records, features re-recorded classics by Butler and Johansson, plus new originals: a gospel duet with Parton and Witherspoon on “Coat of Many Colors.” Budgeted at $65 million — with tax breaks from Tennessee — the film eyes a fall festival premiere at TIFF, Dolly’s adopted hometown fest.

Parton’s reaction? Pure joy with a side of sass. “I’ve turned down biopic pitches for years — too many wanted to sand down my edges,” she said at the event, flanked by goddaughter Miley Cyrus and Reba McEntire. “This one’s got the sparkle and the struggle. From cabin dreams to Hollywood glow — that’s my glow-up, y’all.” Fans, already petitioning for cameos from Beyoncé (who covered “Jolene” in 2024’s Cowboy Carter), flooded social media with #DollyOnScreen, amassing 5 million impressions overnight.

As Parton eyes 80, this biopic cements her as country’s unyielding queen. “I’ve always said, be who you are,” she reflected. “This movie’s my mirror — big hair, bigger heart.” Lights, camera, Dolly: the silver screen’s about to get a whole lot more fabulous.