Shailene Woodley has been tapped to play the rock icon Janis Joplin in a new biopic.
Variety reports that Woodley has joined the cast of the film and will produce as well. The yet-to-be-named biopic is being funded by a $2.5 million tax credit from the state of California’s Film Commission, and per Variety, will have a $10 million budget for “qualified expenditures.”
We don’t know much else about the film, but Woodley wrote in a statement that she’s excited to tell Joplin’s story in California specifically. “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,” she wrote.
Surprisingly, a Janis Joplin biopic has never been made. Numerous filmmakers have tried — per a Hollywood Reporter article from earlier this year, various films have been announced but were scrapped or ended up in development hell. Previously, Zooey Deschanel, Melissa Etheridge, Brittany Murphy, Renée Zellweger, Pink, and Amy Adams have all been reported to star as Janis Joplin in one biopic or another.
Even 30 Rock parodied the specific challenges of helming a Janis Joplin biopic, with a major storyline going to Jenna Maroney starring as the unlicensed “Jackie Jormp Jormp.” The closest we’ve come to a Joplin biopic is the 1979 film The Rose, which starred Bette Midler and was inspired by the life and untimely death of the rock singer.
Revisit Consequence’s multi-episode 2021 podcast about Janis Joplin’s Pearl from The Opus, who took a deep dive into the album’s themes, its impact, and legacy.