Callie Khouri is headed to Miami. The “Nashville” creator has a new music-centric series in the works, this one based in the Sunshine State. Khouri hinted at the project during CMT’s #Nashchat online show on Facebook, Deadline reports.
The Oscar winner was scarce on details, but she did reveal that she’s working on a show that’s set in Miami and that music will feature prominently in the project. “The performance days on ‘Nashville’ are always the best days,” Khouri said. A “J.Lo-ish” star is involved, but Khouri wouldn’t spill the beans on casting.
Khouri made her directorial debut with 2002’s “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.” She won an Oscar in 1992 for writing “Thelma & Louise.” When asked about what’s changed for women in Hollywood in the two-plus decades since, Khouri said, “Clearly there’s much more awareness about [gender inequality]. It’s really a matter of looking at the statistics. I’d love to be able to point to one thing that says it’s better, I’d love to be able to. It’s really beginning to be the world’s most boring conversation, you know? I think everybody’s sick of talking about it. I just wish it would change.”
She explained, “When it comes to hiring directors for feature films, writers and all of that … the numbers are not encouraging. So I don’t know how to get it to change. I just know that for myself and the women I know that are working, you just have to keep slogging away. Finally, you have been doing it long enough, you have a body of work.”
“Nashville’s” fifth season wrapped up on CMT August 10. The musical drama chronicles the personal and professional lives of famous and emerging musicians in Nashville, Tennessee.