Confident Cougar

What makes rock singer John Cougar Mellencamp think he can star in as well as direct his first feature?

“He can do it because this is a real movie, about real life,” says manager Harry Sandler, who’s producing “Souvenirs” (working title). Mellencamp, who’s directed several rock videos, “wouldn’t be taking this on if he didn’t think he could do it.”

Now filming in Seymour, Ind.--where Mellencamp grew up--”Souvenirs” is about a country singer returning home to attend his grandfather’s 80th birthday. “It deals with old relationships, the ties that bind,” says Sandler.

Mellencamp and screenwriter-friend Larry McMurtry worked “off and on for five or six years” developing the project. Budgeted at under $4 million, it co-stars Mariel Hemingway, Claude Akins and Dub Taylor. Columbia will distribute.

Mellencamp, Dwight Yoakam, Janis Ian and James McMurtry, son of Larry, contribute soundtrack tunes, all background stuff.

“This is not a performance movie,” Sandler adds.