Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah are teaming up for Joyful Noise, which revolves a small-town gospel choir.  As the film begins, the local choir director dies, and his widow (Parton) hopes to take over the job.  Though Latifah is placed in charge, the two women join forces to keep the choir from folding.  This is Parton’s first starring role in over a decade, after 1992′s Straight Talk.

According to THR, Todd Graff (Bandslam) is set to write and direct the feature for Alcon Entertainment.  Graff is also the man behind the upcoming remake of Damn Yankees, with Jim Carrey and Jake Gyllenhaal as the leads.

Screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith, have been tapped by Universal to pen a modern-day version of the 1982 musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.  The 1982 version (based off the 1978 Broadway play of the same name) starred Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton as a town sheriff and madame who team up to stop a crusading TV personality from shutting down the local whorehouse.  According to Variety, the new version will include musical numbers, but Universal isn’t saying whether or not the remake will incorporate songs from the previous film.

Lutz and Smith have built a reputation for writing female driven comedies such as Legally Blonde, She’s the Man, The House Bunny, and The Ugly Truth.  They also wrote the adaptation of Janet Evanovich’s One for the Money, which, as we reported earlier this week, will star Katherine Heigl.