The Big Screen

Queen Latifah

Country music and hip-hop royalty Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah are slated to rule things on the big screen as co-stars in the upcoming flick "Joyful Noise."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the musicians/actors will play a pair of ladies who work to stop the closure of a scrappy gospel choir. Latifah will portray the mother of a couple of teenagers who takes the reins of the Pacashau Gospel Choir after the choir leader dies. Parton will play the late choir director's wife who is gunning for the chance to helm the singing group.

The country diva and jazz/pop/hip-hop mogul may also bust out a few tunes together in the film. "Noise" reportedly has a musical angle and director Todd Graff, the writer/director behind the 2003 coming-of-age flick "Camp," is working on the script.

"Noise" marks a return to the silver screen for Parton, who followed up her successful crossover from country to pop with Hollywood hits in the '80s like "Steel Magnolias" and "Nine to Five."

Latifah will stick up for a choir that has fallen on hard times in "Noise" but the multimedia mogul has said she wants to help out promising actors in Hollywood as well. The hip-hop pioneer and big-screen A-lister broke down her reasoning for bringing rapper Common onboard for her last project, "Just Wright."

"Every time that I do a movie, when I get into a position of power and my voice actually meant something, I realized that I could no longer walk out onto a set and look at a bunch of white males," Latifah, who was a producer on "Wright," told MTV News earlier this year. "That was just no longer acceptable. I need to see dynamics. I needed to see what I just came out of from walking off the street when I came in here. Where are the women? Where are the people of color? I need to see that in front of me, 'cause I just don't feel like it's right."
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