Earlier this week, A24 introduced that the highly-anticipated Ronnie Spector biopic, starring Zendaya, will probably be directed by Barry Jenkins. The movie, titled Be My Child (in fact), relies on Spector’s 1990 memoir Be My Child: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Insanity, or, My Life as a Fabulous Ronette. The girl-group legend personally selected Zendaya to play her shortly earlier than her loss of life in 2022. “Thanks for sharing your life with me, I might hearken to your tales for hours and hours,” Zendaya wrote in a tribute again then. “I hope I make you proud.”
Be My Child is simply one of many a number of extremely buzzy biopics of feminine musicians which can be at the moment within the works. There’s additionally the long-promised Janis Joplin movie starring Shailene Woodley, in addition to a Linda Ronstadt film the place the powerhouse vocalist will probably be performed by Selena Gomez. These films all observe a slew of profitable male biopics — most clearly final yr’s Bob Dylan movie A Full Unknown, which garnered Oscar nominations for star Timothée Chalamet and others, but additionally the Queen film, which Rami Malek really received an Oscar for, and don’t neglect the latest movies that dramatized the life tales of Elvis, Elton John, Bob Marley, Mötley Crüe, and Robbie Williams as a chimp for some motive. It will likely be refreshing to see feminine musicians get the identical Hollywood remedy.
These movies famously take years to make, and initiatives typically crumble attributable to entanglements with musicians’ estates and music rights. In December 2024, Woodley knocked on the wooden of Jimmy Fallon’s desk so she didn’t jinx the possibilities of the Joplin movie taking place. “We’ve been engaged on it for seven years now,” she informed the TV host. “She’s such a cool chick, man. She actually introduced the sunshine to this planet in a extremely singular means.”
The Joplin venture, produced by Woodley and backed by Temple Hill Leisure, was revealed in a press launch by California Movie Fee final September, granting the movie a tax credit score. “[It’s] such an incredible present for this movie, as a result of we really get to movie in California, which hardly ever occurs as of late,” Woodley stated. “And for Janis, it’s so essential.” Nevertheless, it’s nonetheless unclear if the Joplin property is taking part.
If it does, Woodley will sing her personal vocals within the movie. She spoke to Fallon about working alongside Linda Perry, who’s serving because the movie’s music producer. “She’s actually pushed me to determine easy methods to discover my very own voice, in a means,” Woodley stated. “As a result of I used to be like, ‘I can’t sing like Janis,’ and she or he put me in lots of uncomfortable conditions. ‘Present up right here on this date.’ A large empty warehouse with a full band. And she or he’s like ‘Have enjoyable! Sing some songs!’ I used to be like, ‘I don’t know easy methods to sing something! Christmas carols? Like, what do I sing?’”
Gomez has been extremely busy, making albums along with her fiancé Benny Blanco, starring in a hit comedy collection on Hulu, and showing in an Oscar-winning (and controversial) Netflix movie. However in November 2024, she confirmed in an interview with Self-importance Truthful that the Ronstadt movie was nonetheless underway. “That’s nonetheless taking place, although I’m undecided when,” she stated, including that she met Ronstadt and “learn two books” — presumably her 2013 memoir Easy Desires and 2022’s Feels Like Residence: A Track for the Sonoran Borderlands.
“I simply discovered her to be so [compelling],” Gomez stated. “She had such an attention-grabbing perspective on music and life, and I actually admired that. She by no means actually wanted to be as profitable, and she or he was keen to strive various things. However there’s a motive it’s taking time. We wish to be sure it’s going to be good.”
Like Zendaya and Be My Child, the Ronstadt venture is allowed, with the singer’s longtime supervisor John Boylan and James Keach (who produced the 2019 doc Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice) signed on to co-produce. David O. Russell is slated to direct.
Hopefully, the Joplin and Ronstadt initiatives will observe Be My Child’s lead and deal with a singular second within the musician’s saga, as an alternative of an exhaustive life story start-to-finish. (Zendaya and Jenkins have stated they may heart the biopic on the Ronettes singer’s tumultuous six-year marriage to controversial producer Phil Spector.) We’re additionally hopeful that the three movies will keep away from falling into what we’ve determined to name the Again to Black lure, during which a feminine musician’s story is closely centered on her romantic relationships as an alternative of her artwork. We’ll simply have to attend till any of those movies make it into theaters to see.
