Lyle Lovett and Justin Timberlake walk The Open Road

Published at 4:13 PM on March 25, 2008

By Nikki King

When the throes of life have a soul seeking relief, doesn’t everyone want a bartender like balladeer Lyle Lovett? We thought so, and apparently so did writer-director Michael Meredith. Lovett has been cast alongside Jeff Bridges, Harry Dean Stanton and Justin Timberlake in The Open Road.

The film follows the son of a baseball legend on a road trip home to see his ailing mother. Timberlake plays the son, Bridges his father and Stanton his grandfather.

This is not the first time that Timberlake and Stanton have appeared on screen together; they were both in the gang flick Alpha Dog in 2006. Nor is it Lovett’s first time around the cinematic block. He appeared in Meredith’s 2003 take on Chekhov, Three Days of Rain, and had a wholly entertaining bit part in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

The project will be filmed in the Louisiana mostly. Kate Mara (We Are Marshall) and Mary Steenburgen (Step Brothers) will also star.

No word yet on when filming will begin or any projected release date, but we can only hope we'll get to see Lovett and JT battle it out on semantics.

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.