FILMED VINYL

Willie Nelson has quietly co-produced, co-financed and starred in a film version of his 1976 album “Red-Headed Stranger.” Production of the sub-$3 million film was just completed on a Western town set built on Nelson’s ranch near Austin, Tex.

According to Nelson’s agent, Jim Wiatt, the film “adheres closely to the theme of the album, telling the story of a preacher from Pennsylvania who comes West with his wife in the 1870s.” Fellow Texan Morgan Fairchild plays the wife. Katharine Ross also appears.

William Wittliff, who wrote two of Nelson’s previous films (“Honeysuckle Rose” and “Barbarosa”), wrote and directed. Besides Nelson, an investor in the independent production was University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal.