Tom Hiddleston is stepping up his preparation to play country music legend Hank Williams, performing at Michigan's Wheatland Music Festival on Saturday (September 6, 2014). The British actor - best known for playing Loki in Thor and The Avengers - will play Williams in the forthcoming biopic, I Saw the Light.

Tom HiddlestonTom Hiddleston will play Hank Williams in 'I Saw the Light' [Getty/Jason Merritt]

The 33-year-old treated to a full rendition of country legend Hank Williams' hit 'Move It on Over,' with one quick-thinking audience member capturing it on video. The following day, Hiddleston returned to join Rodney Cromwell on-stage for a performance of Williams' 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry'.

More: check out our Tom Hiddleston pictures

I Saw the Light will chronicle Williams' triumphant rise to fame in the country music world as well as exploring the tragic effect that fame had on his life and health. After years of alcoholism and drug abuse, Williams divorced from his wife Audrey before being found dead on New Year's Day in 1953 from heart failure exacerbated by pills and alcohol. 

More: Tom Hiddleston to play iconic country legend Hank Williams

I Saw the Light is due to begin shooting in Louisiana next month. It is directed by Marc Abraham, best known for producing Children of Men (2006), Dawn of the Dead (2004) and In Time (2011).

More: MGM want Tom Hiddleston as Ben-Hur in 2016

Last month, we reported how Hiddleston was being lined up for a big-budget remake of Ben-Hur, directed by Timur Bekmambetov. Studio MGM recently acquired Keith Clarke's adaptation of Lew Wallace's 1880 novel, with the screenplay since revised by 12 Years a Slave's Oscar winner John Ridley.