By Adam Hetrick
23 Nov 2009

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and actor Sam Shepard will star in "Tough Trade," a new dramatic television pilot from Lionsgate Television.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Shepard will play the patriarch of a Nashville music dynasty on the verge of moral and financial bankruptcy. Gavin Hood will direct the pilot that is scheduled to begin filming on location in Nashville, TN, Dec. 3.

The new premium Epix channel, a partnership between Viacom, Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate, will host "Tough Trade." The pilot is aiming for a 2010 debut.

Shepard is a Pulitzer winner for his play Buried Child. His plays also include Kicking a Dead Horse, True West (Tony and Pulitzer nomination), Curse of the Starving Class, Tongues, Simpatico and Fool for Love (Pulitzer nomination). He earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance in "The Right Stuff," and has appeared in the films "Brothers," "The Assassination of Jesse James…," "The Return," "The Notebook," "Hamlet," "Snow Falling on Cedars," "Steel Magnolias," "The Pelican Brief" and "Crimes of the Heart."