Britney Spears Lands 8-Figure Deal With Universal Pictures for Biopic of Her Memoir ‘The Woman in Me’... With 'Wicked' Director Jon. M Chu Attached!
Aug. 1 2024, Published 4:47 p.m. ET
Universal Pictures landed the rights to Britney Spears’ bestselling memoir The Woman in Me and is set to produce the biopic.
Wicked director Jon. M Chu and La La Land producer Marc Platt are both attached to the project, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The Hit Me Baby One More singer hinted at the deal on X hours before it was announced, tweeting: “Excited to share with my fans that I've been working on a secret project with #MarcPlatt. He’s always made my favorite movies … stay tuned 🌹”
Spears’ memoir chronicles her rise from a sweet southern kid growing up in small-town Louisiana to her career as a pop star, her relationships, divorce, battles with mental health and her heartbreaking conservatorship.
Spears was represented in the Universal deal by Hudson Management and CAA. The deal, which includes the rights to Spears’ music catalog, is billed at eight figures, according to The Ankler, which broke the news.
The outlet also noted multiple Hollywood studios and production companies had been bidding for the rights. Among them were the major studios including Sony, Warner Brothers and Fox. Streaming services Disney and Netflix also tried to land the deal.
Celebrity producers who bid on the book, include Shonda Rhimes, Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt’s Plan B.
Published by Simon and Schuster, The Woman in Me went on sale in October 2023 and sold over 2.5 million copies in the United States alone. Together with the print edition, the e-book and audiobook hit Number 1 on The New York Times Bestseller list.
The audiobook received rave reviews and became the top-selling audiobook of 2023 with Oscar-winner Michelle Williams as the narrator. Among the standout moments is Williams retelling how Justin Timberlake would put on a "blaccent" around his rapper friends to try and fit in.
This positive news comes on the heels of a lot of negative press for theToxic singer. She recently reunited with her felon ex-boyfriend Paul Soliz for a Malibu outing despite confirming she was "single as f---" on the heels of their breakup.
The mother of two also got into a social media battle with singer Halsey who sampled Spears’ 2000 hit song Lucky in her own newly-released comeback video of the same name.
Spears tweeted she was upset Halsey sampled her song and threatened to sue after she appeared to reference the Stronger pop star's troubled history in her latest music video.
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In the original message, the Oops I Did It Again singer wrote: “For obvious reasons, I'm very upset about the Halsey video. I feel harassed, violated, and bullied. I didn't know an artist like her and someone I looked up to and admired would illustrate me in such an ignorant way by tailoring me as a superficial pop star with no heart or concern at all.”
“I have my own health problems which is why I took down my IG account yesterday. I will definitely be putting it back up to show I CARE. I'm speaking with my lawyers today to see what can be done on this matter. It feels illegal and down right cruel.”
However, shortly after deleting her initial post, Spears said her previous critique of Halsey's music video had been “fake news” and claimed: “That was not me on my phone!!! I love Halsey and that's why I deleted it!!!”
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