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BREAKING: Dallas Buyers Club helmer Jean-Marc Vallee is signing on to direct Amy Adams as Janis Joplin in Get It While You Can, the working title for the biographical film that has a script by Ron and Theresa Terry and will shoot mid-2015. It will be the next film by Vallee, who helmed Reese Witherspoon in Wild and just wrapped Demolition with Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts and Chris Cooper.

They will finalize a distributor shortlym and Dallas Buyers Club‘s Craig Borten and Melissa Wallack — who were Oscar nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay — are negotiating to rewrite. Vallee is a strong performer’s director; Dallas Buyers Club led to an Best Actor Oscar for Matthew McConaughey and Best Supporting Actor for Jared Leto. He also has a knack for strong use of music in his movies.

Adams has been attached to play Joplin and has wanted to do this for several years. She’s expected to be in contention for her sixth Oscar nomination for the Tim Burton-directed Big Eyes, which the Weinstein Company opens on Christmas Day, and is wrapping Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, reprising her Man Of Steel role as Lois Lane. Ron Terry is producing with Nathan Ross. She next will star in May in Story Of Your Life, the Denis Villenueve-directed sci-fi pic that Paramount Pictures acquired for a Cannes Film Festival record sum in May.

Adams has wanted to tackle this film for years, and she plans to sing Joplin’s tunes. Deadline first reported Adams’ desire to do the film back in 2010, when Fernando Meirelles (City Of God) wanted to direct.

There have been several attempts to mount films about the gravelly voiced ’60s songtress, and a rival project has Nina Arianda attached to star.

WME and Brillstein Entertainment Partners rep Adams.

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EXCLUSIVE: Not all the indie films coveted by buyers are in Sundance. A spirited auction is going on right now for Janis, a package for the long-awaited film about iconic ’60s singer Janis Joplin. Martha Marcy May Marlene helmer Sean Durkin is directing, and Manchester By The Sea star Michelle Williams is now firmly set to play the singer.

From what I hear, Amazon is squarely in the mix and hopes to stay in business with Williams as its Sundance 2016 acquisition Manchester closes in on $40 million domestic, with Williams and Casey Affleck front-runners going into the Oscar nominations. Sources said Amazon isn’t alone, with an offer for North American rights from A24; FilmNation is vying for international sales rights, and Netflix is also circling. The auction will be decided in the next 10 days, and shooting will begin in the spring. Start Media will finance the equity portion of the film. Peter Newman is producing with Durkin’s Borderline Films partners, along with Uncommon Productions and Seven Hills Productions.

This will finally conclude a 21-year odyssey to make the film, which started at TriStar. And which, at one time or another, had actresses attached including Lili Taylor, Pink, Williams, Zoey Deschanel and Nina Arianda along with a host of directors. There was also a rival project that cooled but once had names like Amy Adams, Renee Zellweger, Brittany Murphy and Evan Rachel Wood in the mix.

Janis is being done in partnership with the Joplin family, and has exclusive rights to 24 songs including “Me And Bobby McGee” and “Mercedes Benz.” There are also exclusive rights to the remaining members of her band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and people in her life that included Dick Cavett, on whose show Joplin made memorable appearances.

Williams was first attached about four years ago, before things slid. Recently, an open casting call was arranged, and while many known actresses declined to audition, Williams showed up and proved to the filmmaker she had the vocal grit to pull off the vocals. Anyone who saw that scene in Manchester By The Sea has no doubt that Williams has the acting chops. Stay tuned.

http://deadline.com/2017/01/janis-jo...in-1201888518/

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There’s never been a Janis Joplin biopic. There have been movies — like the 1979 Bette Midler vehicle The Rose, originally conceived as a Joplin movie before Joplin’s estate withheld rights to her music — that are inspired by Joplin’s life. Beyond The Rose, there have been plenty of attempts at a full-on Joplin biopic over the years. Earlier this year, The Hollywood Reporter ran a story about the many failed attempts. At various points, Melissa Etheridge, Brittany Murphy, Renée Zellweger, Zooey Deschanel, Pink, and most recently Amy Adams have all been attached to play Joplin — not to mention the 30 Rock plotline about Jenna Maroney playing an unlicensed Joplin clone named Jackie Jormp-Jomp. Now we’ve got a new cinematic Janis Joplin, and it’s Shailene Woodley.

Variety reports that Shailene Woodley, of The Fault In Our Stars and the Divergent series, will produce and star in a new Janis Joplin biopic, which is receiving $2.5 million from the tax-funded California Film Commission. We know that the film plans to shoot for 30 days and that it’s got a $10 million budget for “qualified expenditures,” but that’s pretty much all we’ve got. In a press release, Woodley says, “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."

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