Last year, Sony hired Lissette Feliciano (“Women Is Losers”) to write and direct “On Your Feet,” a biopic of singer Gloria Estefan. Today, we got quite the update.
Estefan is telling The Sun that none other than Rachel Zegler is attached to star as the Cuban-born singer in Feliciano’s biopic. Of course, the film still needs to be greenlit, but Estefan seems hopeful:
I think she’s awesome, I think she’s incredible. I know she’s killed it in “Evita.” We’re still working on the green light because we’re figuring out where to do it, how to do it. This has been in the works for quite a few years now. And that’s how it works.
Estefan is a singer-songwriter and actress who rose to fame in the 1980s as the lead vocalist of Miami Sound Machine. Known for hits like “Conga” and “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You,” she helped popularize Latin pop music worldwide and has earned multiple Grammy Awards.
With the drama of “Snow White” behind her, Zegler has somehow found another acting gig in an industry that has tried to shun her. Unlike her upcoming indie-financed romcom, “She Gets It From Me,” this one could be a big role for her, again, if it gets greenlit.
A month ago, Disney basically blamed the “Snow White” bombing on Zegler’s off-set behavior. The Mouse House needed a scapegoat, and Zegler was the most obvious target. If you remember, they used the exact same playbook with “The Marvels” director Nia DaCosta right after her film bombed, leaking to the trades about her inexperienced behavior on and off set.
Now, whether Zegler deserved full blame for “Snow White” is not for me to say, but she certainly didn’t help. A Variety report, filled with anonymous sources—most likely Disney-connected—painted Zegler as irresponsible and erratic in behavior during the promotion of “Snow White.”
Zegler launched her film career with a breakout performance in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” (2021), earning a Golden Globe Award and widespread recognition. She went on to appear in major studio productions such as “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” and “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,” followed by that highly publicized role in Disney’s live-action “Snow White.”