Another music biopic is in the works. This one will tackle Janis Joplin. Variety reports that Shailene Woodley (“The Fault In Our Stars”) has been cast as Joplin, which is receiving $2.5 million from the tax-funded California Film Commission. The film plans to shoot for 30 days and has a $10M budget for “qualified expenditures.” No director has been announced yet.
Shailene Woodley is 32 years old — five years older than Joplin at the time of her death. Can she sing? We don’t know. Earlier this year, THR reported about the many failed attempts at making a Joplin biopic. Melissa Etheridge, Brittany Murphy, Renée Zellweger, Zooey Deschanel, Pink, and Amy Adams have all, at some point, been attached to play Joplin.
Of course, there’s never been a Joplin biopic done before, unless you include the 1979 Bette Midler film “The Rose,” originally conceived as a Joplin movie before Joplin’s estate withheld the rights to the music.
Hollywood’s current obsesson with music biopics continues on, the Joplin movie is just one of many coming down the pipeline. We’re about to enter the onslaught phase with already-greenlit films about Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Madonna, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, The Bee Gees, Maria Callas. Carole King, Dionne Warwick and Linda Ronstadt.
Following “Air,” this is Affleck’s latest stint behind the camera. He has cast himself in the lead role, alongside Kerry Washington, Steven Yeun, and Gillian Anderson (“The X-Files”).