A Britney Spears biopic is in the works, Universal Pictures announced Thursday, after buying the rights to the pop star’s uncompromising memoir.
“Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon Chu is tapped to helm the film, the company said in a statement.
It will be based on the singer’s autobiographical book, ‘The Woman in Me’, which was published last October and has sold more than 2.5 million copies in the United States alone.
Universal won a “highly competitive auction” for the film rights and “La La Land” producer Marc Platt is set to oversee the project, the statement said.
“I’m working on a secret project with #MarcPlatt. He’s always made my favorite movies,” Britney Spears announced on social media Thursday.
The book allowed the singer to reclaim her story, once freed from the guardianship that had governed every aspect of her life for 13 years.
The singer of ‘…Baby One More Time’ returns to the legal battles that opposed her to her family and does not avoid anything: from her poor childhood spent in the shadow of an alcoholic father, to her romantic disappointments with Justin Timberlake, including the harassment of the paparazzi. She reveals that Justin Timberlake pushed her to have an abortion during their relationship.
After her descent into hell in 2007, the singer was placed under the guardianship of her father Jamie Spears, who controlled her money and her private life, even as she performed concerts in Las Vegas.
“If I wasn’t able to make decisions, why was I considered capable of performing in public?” the singer asks in her book, recounting that she was no longer even in control of her diet.
Pushed by her fans, gathered under the slogan ‘Free Britney’, the pop star ended up rebelling and the American justice system overturned this guardianship in 2021. Her father has always maintained that he had his daughter’s best interests at heart.
The film does not yet have a release date. Universal has previously released music biopics about hip-hop group NWA (‘Straight Outta Compton’) and rapper Eminem (‘8 Mile’). The studio is also preparing other biopics about the lives of rapper Snoop Dogg and singer Prince, who died in 2021.
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