Different Tunes

Maverick film maker Robert Altman tells us that Weintraub Entertainment has pulled the plug on “Nashville, Nashville,” the sequel to his 1975 singularly titled film. And Weintraub is denying it.

“Too many stars, too many agents” was Altman’s shorthand summation for its alleged demise. “They misrepresented the project to me. Basically, they were looking for a Lily Tomlin film and when she dropped out recently, their interest evaporated.”

Altman said he completed a screenplay with Robert Harders and had commitments from most of the 20-plus original actors for a start date last year. Then it was postponed to 1988 due to a threatened Directors Guild strike. Tomlin departed, in part due to live-performance conflicts, her rep said. And now Weintraub’s scrapped the project, according to Altman.

But Weintraub exec David Kirkpatrick sings another song: “We’re still in development on the project.” And: “We still believe Altman will do it.”