Last week it was announced that actress Amy Adams ('Julie & Juliet') had signed on to star as Janis Joplin in director Fernando Meirelles' ('City of God') biopic of the legendary singer. The script, owned by Fox Searchlight, is tentatively called 'Get It While You Can,' which had Hollywood a buzz a few years ago with rumors of pairing director Catherine Hardwicke with Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon.
Adams is just the latest in a line of stars who have been attached to a Janis project over the years. In 1999 Lili Taylor was set to play Joplin, but nothing came of that. Then the horrendous news in 2003 that Renee Zellweger was going to bless us all with her "singing talent" in 'Piece of My Heart.' Thankfully that didn't happen and by 2004 things were looking up as fireball musician P!nk inherited Taylor's spot in 'The Gospel According to Janis.' Unfortunetly, not even with P!nk (who I've seen sing the hell out of Joplin's material) could the movie get made. Although I did hear that there were creative differences between the musician and the producer which eventually resulted in P!nk dropping out and being replaced by Zooey Deschanel in 2006. Add Reese Witherspoon into the mix along the way and you can see why I wonder if Janis Joplin's life will ever be brought to the big screen.
I guess there is some hope, as it took almost as long for 'The Runaways' to get made, but once Kristen Stewart signed on, the indie biopic started production and hit theaters earlier this year. Ironically there is a 'Twilight' connection to the Joplin project as well- 'Get It While You Can' is slated to be produced by Temple Hill Entertainment, the same producers behind the 'Twilight' saga and lord knows they should have enough money now to get the Janis Joplin biopic into production, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.
