DENVER MOVIE ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH-FIVED
UNKNOWN TO PLAY TRAGIC COUNTRY BOY
                by Michael Starr

New York Post
Sept 16, 1998

   John Denver's untimatley tragic life is coming to the small 
screen. Granada Entertainment has purchased the rights to the 
life story of Denver, the 53 year old "Rocky Mountain High" 
pop icon killed last October in a plane crash near Monterey, 
Calif. And Granada saya it is unlikely to cast a big-name 
actor to portray Denver in a TV movie based on the singer's 
autobiography, "Take Me Home", and targeted for a spring or 
fall '99 airdate.
   "Casting-wise, we'll probably go with an unknown," said 
Granada executive producer Robert Rovner.  "We might do one of 
those national talent searches and then cast a known star as 
[Denver's first wife] Annie for the female lead. John was such 
a distinctive personality, that to cast a well-known actor may 
not be the way to go."
    Granada, working with Annie Martell Denver, has snagged 
the rights to most of John Denver's music catalogue - meaning 
the actor hired to portray Denver will not be required to 
sing, Rovner said. "With John's music and his voice, to make a 
movie and not to use that ...would be a waste," Rovner said. 
Co-executive producer Jon Cowan said the movie will focus on 
Denver's first marriage to Annie, for whom he wrote "Annie's 
Song"
   "We see this as a love story about a man who defined a 
generation with his music and was able to touch the world with 
his songs," Cowan said.  "This won't be about a man who dies 
tragically; by the end of his life, John had found himself and 
his career was beginning to surge again." Denver rocketed to 
international stardom in the '70s with a string of best 
selling hits (Annie's Song, "Rocky Mountain High," "Sunshine 
on My Shoulders," "Thank God I'm a Country Boy"), made a hit 
movies ("Oh God!" with George Burns) and hosted 20 TV 
specials.
   After the hits stopped, Denver battled a drinking problem 
and was arrested twice for drunk driving. "We'll probably take 
a small portion of the movie somewhere to cover his alchol 
problems, but that's only a small portion of the story," 
Rovner said. "We think we'll show snippets of his life as a 
youth but we'll focus primarily on John's rise to fame. 
"One of the things that's so nice about this movie is that his 
music is, in essence, the story of his life."
   Denver, born Henry John Deutschendorf Jr., was flying an 
experimental plane last October when he lost control and 
plummeted to his death.