Before you hit the comments section and tells us this is “old news” or whatever, consider that when this little nugget broke, we were deep in the midst of the Toronto International Film Festival, so it passed us by. But our recent AFI Fest interview with “Wild” director Jean-Marc Vallée had us poking around to see what was up. During our chat the filmmaker told us “…next year I’ve got a rock-n-roll film happening. I can’t talk about it, though.” But it appears he already has.
A couple months back, the director chatted with Journal Du Quebec (via Metro) and revealed that he will directing a Janis Joplin biopic starring Amy Adams. The actress has long been attached to play the rock ‘n’ roll singer, with Fernando Meirelles and Lee Daniels both in the running to helm at various points, but it looks like it’s now in the hands of Vallée. The filmmaker adds it will be an independent film on a lean budget of $15-20 million, and that he’s tasked the “Dallas Buyers Club” screenwriters Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack to tackle the script (Ron and Theresa Kounin-Terry had done the previous draft).
No word yet on when the project might lens, but Vallée has already wrapped his next film “Demolition,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts, so we presume it won’t be long before there’s more info on the Joplin project.
“When I turned 19, 20, I decided to study film, but my thing was always music. But now I wish I played guitar or sung. I’m really a frustrated musician, I would love to perform. Every time I see a rock concert, I wish I was up onstage,” Vallée told us. Well, this might be the next best thing.