Britney Biopic in Works as Universal Buys Memoir Rights

US pop star Britney Spears. (Reuters)
US pop star Britney Spears. (Reuters)
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Britney Biopic in Works as Universal Buys Memoir Rights

US pop star Britney Spears. (Reuters)
US pop star Britney Spears. (Reuters)

A Britney Spears biopic is in development after Universal Pictures bought movie rights to the pop star's best-selling memoir, the Hollywood studio announced Thursday.
"Crazy Rich Asians" director Jon Chu is attached to develop and direct the film, based on Spears's recent autobiographical book "The Woman In Me," the company said in a statement to AFP.
Universal won a "highly competitive auction" for the film adaptation rights, with "La La Land" producer Marc Platt due to oversee the project, it said.
"Excited to share with my fans that I've been working on a secret project with #MarcPlatt. He's always made my favorite movies," Spears herself posted on social media Thursday.
"Stay tuned," she told fans.
"The Woman In Me" laid bare the troubled singer's journey from child star to global pop phenomenon, as well as her subsequent high-profile public breakdown and legal battles with her father.
Full of criticism of her controlling family and an industry that mercilessly devours its talent, the book sold over 2.5 million copies in the United States alone following its publication last October.
Spears's phenomenal early music success with late 1990s hits like "...Baby One More Time" coincided with an aggressive paparazzi culture that delighted in capturing her partying alongside hell-raisers like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.
In the book, Spears revealed that Justin Timberlake urged her to have an abortion after she became pregnant during their relationship.
And she shared details of her brief but intense affair with Irish actor and Oscar nominee Colin Farrell, which she called "a two-week brawl."
Following Spears's public breakdown, she was placed under the conservatorship of her father Jamie Spears, who controlled her money and her personal life, even as she continued to perform high-profile concerts.
The conservatorship was dissolved by a Los Angeles court in 2021, after a groundswell of public support to "Free Britney."
Her father has always insisted that he had the best interests of his daughter at heart and was seeking to protect her from exploitation.
No release date has been set for the Britney film.
Universal has previously released musical biopics about hip-hop group N.W.A ("Straight Outta Compton") and rapper Eminem ("8 Mile.")
Chu is also directing Universal's big-budget, two-part movie adaptation of the musical "Wicked," with the first film out in November.



Anna Netrebko to Sing at Palm Beach Opera Gala

FILE - Soprano Anna Netrebko attends a news conference on the premiere of Manon Lescaut in the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Russia on Oct. 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
FILE - Soprano Anna Netrebko attends a news conference on the premiere of Manon Lescaut in the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Russia on Oct. 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
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Anna Netrebko to Sing at Palm Beach Opera Gala

FILE - Soprano Anna Netrebko attends a news conference on the premiere of Manon Lescaut in the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Russia on Oct. 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
FILE - Soprano Anna Netrebko attends a news conference on the premiere of Manon Lescaut in the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Russia on Oct. 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

Soprano Anna Netrebko is scheduled to give a recital at the Palm Beach Opera for its gala on Feb. 3 in what would be her first US appearance in six years.

Considered the world’s top soprano, Netrebko was dropped by the Metropolitan Opera in 2022 after she refused a demand by Met general manager Peter Gelb that she repudiate Russia President President Vladimir Putin following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She has sued the Met, alleging defamation and breach of contract in a case that is pending, The AP reported.

She has appeared since then at major houses including the Vienna State Opera, Paris Opéra, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala and Berlin’s Staatsoper unter den Linden but had not been engaged in the US or by The Royal Opera in London. She last appeared at the Met in 2019 in Verdi’s “Macbeth.”

Netrebko will perform with pianist Ángel Rodríguez at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.

“I am honored to be lending my voice to the Palm Beach Opera’s annual gala,” Netrebko said in a statement Wednesday sent to The Associated Press.

Palm Beach Opera’s season includes three performances each of Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette" in January, Verdi’s “La Traviata” in February and Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” in April. Casts have not been announced.

Past Palm Beach Opera galas featured Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Renée Fleming and Bryn Terfel, with Isabel Leonard (2024), Piotr Becza³a (2023) and Nadine Sierra (2022) appearing in recent years.

“It means a lot to me to be joining the remarkable list of illustrious singers that have participated in this celebration over the last decades,” Netrebko said.