Wicked director Jon M Chu has confirmed that he’ll be following the hit movie musical by bringing Britney Spears’ life story to the big screen.
Back in August, Deadline reported that Universal Pictures had bagged the rights to Britney’s best-selling memoir The Woman In Me, with Jon attached to direct.
Following this, there was a bit of confusion when the …Baby One More Time singer claimed on Instagram that she and Jon were actually working on a “fictional musical” in which the Grammy winner will play an “extremely intelligent character”.
However, backstage at Sunday night’s Golden Globes, the filmmaker confirmed he is, in fact, currently working on a movie about Britney.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Jon explained: “It’s very early [in the production process] right now. She is going to be very involved. I haven’t really started anything fully yet, but she will be very involved.
“I have ideas and things, but it’s very, very early.”
Asked about the casting process, namely whether he was eyeing an “unknown” or an existing “pop girlie” to play Britney, he added: “I’ve seen all the fan casting, I’ve seen all that stuff, and I always take that into consideration because maybe there’s a good idea there. But we’ll have to see.
“We’ll have to see what the approach of the movie is before we know who’s right for it. But I’m open for anything.”
In 2023, it was revealed that Jon was also hoping to bring the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat to the big screen, with Britney’s post over the summer sparking speculation she could be cast as the narrator.
Before all of that, though, there’s the small matter of Wicked For Good, the second half of the Wizard Of Oz retelling which is due to hit cinemas later this year.