‘Sisterhood’ Track Akin to ‘O Brother’

How do you follow a pop phenomenon? That’s the question that producer-musician T Bone Burnett answers this week with the soundtrack for “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood,” his first soundtrack project since the album for “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” became the out-of-left-field success story of 2001.

The “Sisterhood” album, which hits stores Tuesday, has several parallels to “O Brother,” as well as key differences. Once again Burnett has assembled a mix of vintage recordings, recent tracks from contemporary artists and a few numbers commissioned for the Callie Khouri-directed adaptation of Rebecca Wells’ best-selling 1996 novel. It’s scheduled to open June 7. The album is the first release on the new Columbia Records-affiliated DMZ label created by Burnett and “O Brother” filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen.

Highlights start with a new Bob Dylan song, the Cajun-country spiced waltz “Waitin’ for You,” his first effort for a movie since he won an Oscar for “Things Have Changed” from “Wonder Boys.”

There’s also a new Lauryn Hill tune, “Selah,” and new recordings of vintage songs by Tony Bennett, Macy Gray, Taj Mahal and “O Brother” alumna Alison Krauss.

To evoke the rural Louisiana atmosphere of Wells’ book, Burnett also rounds up old blues tracks from Jimmy Reed, Slim Harpo and Ray Charles, a Mahalia Jackson gospel number and several Cajun tunes from Blind Uncle Gaspard and modern-day historian-musician Ann Savoy.

“It is differentiated from a whole bunch of soundtracks that have come out in the last year to year and a half,” says Scott Levin, director of music marketing for the national Musicland retail chain. “People are looking for something different--things they can relate to that are not so manufactured. And that to me is the critical thing about this soundtrack: It’s got great songwriting and doesn’t give you the feeling it’s just thrown together.”

Nobody in retail is expecting this album to hit the stratospheric heights of “O Brother”--sales of 5.2 million and counting, plus Grammy, Country Music Assn. and Academy of Country Music honors as album of the year--but they are optimistic that the “Sisterhood” album will appeal to a good chunk of the “O Brother” audience.

“We will definitely associate the two because of the ‘O Brother’ success,” Levin says. “It could be a Top 10 debut given the competition, but we also believe it has legs, and that’s really what happened with ‘O Brother.’ It didn’t start out very big, but just grew and grew and has been a steady seller ever since.”

But will the “O Brother” audience make the connection?

“I haven’t heard much of a buzz about it,” says Wherehouse chain buyer Craig Swedin.

“But I’m sure that once the movie hits it should have good sales because of who all is involved.”

*

Little Films Have Little Chance

If it seems that the only movies showing at the local megaplex these days are “Spider-Man,” “Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones” and a handful of other big studio releases, be forewarned: It only figures to get worse.

America’s movie theaters are facing a glut of summer movies and, as a result, the screen crunch is worsening.

That’s because there are only 32,000 movie screens in the country, and with wide-release blockbusters filling up all the best sites, the competition for the rest will only increase. This weekend, “The Sum of All Fears” is to roll out in about 3,000 theaters, with “Undercover Brother” taking more than 2,000 sites. Those films enter a market already glutted with “Star Wars,” “Spider-Man” and new releases like “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron,” which opened last weekend in more than 3,300 theaters, and “Insomnia” and “Enough,” each of which debuted in more than 2,600 theaters.

“Spider-Man” actually has increased the number of theaters in which it’s playing to nearly 3,900, and that film has been out four weeks.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co. “It gets tougher and tougher to get a screen in a theater. This is going to be problematic this summer, when we have 54 films being released from May through August, compared to 41 films last summer.”

Dergarabedian said the downside to all this is that the logjam invariably will squeeze out smaller, lower-profile films.

*

Miniseries to Get More Mini in Reruns

Call them the incredible shrinking miniseries, as NBC pumps up the volume on nostalgia beginning Saturday by bringing back “The ‘60s” and later “The ‘70s,” a pair of two-part productions that performed well for the network ratings-wise despite tepid reviews.

NBC’s decision to rerun those projects stems in part from its desire to pave the way for “American Dreams”--a similarly themed upcoming weekly dramatic series, set in the 1960s, which uses “America Bandstand” as a backdrop. “Bandstand” host Dick Clark is among the producers of the program, which premieres on the network this fall.

Still, in order to accommodate its three-hour Saturday-night movie slot, both productions will be whittled down from their original four-hour presentation, as will the World War II miniseries “Uprising,” which is also planned for an encore telecast in June.

An NBC spokeswoman noted that the network’s contract on miniseries calls for the producers to deliver three-hour and four-hour versions. In other words, the filmmakers oversaw editing of the condensed form, so the movie won’t abruptly end halfway through 1967.

All the networks are providing a mix of reruns and low-cost original programming this summer, trying to keep the lights turned on as they gear up for September. NBC has an advantage in that it will run the reminder of the NBA playoffs, which traditionally provide a solid promotional platform for new shows.

Compiled by Times staff writers