Actress/producer Shailene Woodley (“Ferrari”) will star as rock legend Janis Joplin in an upcoming biopic. Production on the currently untitled film will be backed by a $2.5 million tax credit from the state of California’s Film Commission. It is expected to shoot over 30 days, with a budget of $10 million for “qualified expenditures.”
“California meant so much to Janis Joplin — from the stoops of San Francisco to the wooden walls of Sunset Sound, the state became the stage upon which she explored not just the world of music, but the world of her vibrant humanity,” Woodley said in a statement.
Beyond that, little is known about the project at this time.
The Joplin Films That Weren’t
Despite Joplin’s undeniable impact on the history of rock music, there hasn’t been an official biopic about her. The 1979 film “The Rose,” starring Bette Midler was originally written to be a biopic, but the family declined to sell the rights. So it was re-written to be about a Joplin-like rock star, and not directly about her.
Over the decades, countless other proposed biopics have fallen through or been stuck in production hell. Actresses like Zooey Deschanel, Melissa Etheridge, the late Brittany Murphy, Renée Zellweger, Pink, and Amy Adams have all been attached to these failed projects.
The problem with making a Joplin biopic is so pervasive that “30 Rock” did an episode centered around it. “That Girly Show” star Jenna Maroney signs on to play the rocker in a new movie for Nestflix. That is until the production loses the life rights and she becomes Jackie Jormp-Jomp. She even belts out classic songs like “Take another little chunk of my lung, now mister”.
We truly do hope the Woodley’s Joplin biopic is able to break the cycle. We’ll keep you posted on updates as they become available.
