The Britney Spears biopic has reportedly found a writer. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal has tapped New Girl creator Liz Meriwether to adapt the singer’s best-selling 2023 memoir The Woman In Me into the latest big screen musical biopic.
Though no official announcement has been made about the project, THR noted that Universal is re-teaming with the creative team behind the pair of smash Wicked films, with Jon M. Chu reportedly on board to direct and Marc Platt on board to produce; a spokesperson for Universal had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment at press time.
In addition to the beloved New Girl sitcom starring Zooey Deschanel, Jake Johnson and Max Greenfield, four-time Emmy nominee Meriwether wrote the 2011 Ashton Kutcher/Natalie Portman rom-com No Strings Attached and was the creator behind the ABC sitcoms Single Parents and Bless This Mess. She was also the creative force behind the Hulu drama series The Dropout — about disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes — and last year’s Dying For Sex starring Michelle Williams, Jenny Slate and Rob Delaney.
Spears’ memoir traces her career from her humble beginnings to her rise to pop superstardom in the late 1990s and early 2000s, chronicling her often contentious relationship with her family, her headline-grabbing romance with Justin Timberlake and the public mental health struggles that led to a restrictive 13-year conservatorship she fought for years.
THR noted that the book sold millions of copies worldwide and the audiobook, read by actress Williams, became the fastest-selling in Simon & Schuster’s history.
With the Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, recently pulling ahead of the Freddie Mercury/Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, to become the top-grossing musician biopic of all time with grosses north of $978 million to date, THR said that studios are on the hunt for other music stories to tell with current projects in the pipeline including a Snoop Dogg biopic starring Jonathan Davis (Outer Banks) in production now.
from Billboard https://ift.tt/nT9DMLH
