Director Jon M. Chu is currently basking in the glow of early reviews for Wicked that are labeling it one of the best movie musical adaptations in years. It would be easy to keep his focus on his current project, but one of his upcoming big-screen releases involves one of the biggest popstars of all time. While Britney Spears hasn’t recorded new music in some time, her relevance in pop culture and music still resonates, which is why when the news broke that a movie biopic was being made based on her The Woman in Me memoir, her fans went through the roof with excitement. Chu will be helming the biopic and while news has been scarce since the announcement, the director is providing new details about what the film will focus on.
During a chat with The Hollywood Reporter, Chu admitted that they haven’t hired a writer yet and there is currently no script, but conversations have been had about what themes the film will discuss, and it will be much more than someone’s rise to fame and their trials and tribulations along the way. The In The Heights director said, “We haven’t written the script yet, we haven’t hired a writer yet. But in this initial conception, I think it’s a lot about how we treat people, young people, stars that we think we own, women, mothers. There’s a lot of things in there that I would love to explore.”
Chu seems like the right person to tackle Spears’ story since he’s also a big fan of hers. He might be able to tap into many facets of her journey that should please her fanbase. The director said:
“I have been a Britney fan for many years. I saw her when she was one of 12 acts at the Shrine Auditorium. I’ve gone to many of her shows, and she’s always been someone I’ve looked up to. She represents a generation of people growing up in the 2000s and late ’90s, and she has a story that deserves to be told properly. There’s a lot about us in it.”
Universal Pictures Won the Rights to The Woman in Me After an Intense Bidding War
The Britney Spears biopic was announced back in August by Universal Pictures, who won an intense bidding war for her memoir, The Woman in Me, which will serve as the basis for the film’s story. Chu was announced as the film’s director when the initial news dropped, while Marc Platt, who partnered with the director as a producer on Wicked, will be joining him in the same capacity on the music biopic.
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Released in 2023, The Woman in Me earned praise from critics for its honesty and became a number one New York Times bestseller, selling over 1.1 million copies in all formats during its initial release. It has since gone on to sell over two million copies in the U.S. and three million copies globally. The memoir details Spears’ journey to stardom as one of the highest-selling female artists of all time while also shining a light on the highly publicized challenges she faced, particularly the conservatorship she was put under for years that controlled her life and her battle to break free from it. From her early relationship with Justin Timberlake, which resulted in an abortion, to her marriage to Kevin Federline, to the issues with her family following the conservatorship, there are many topics for the film to explore.