Britney Spears Biopic Remains in Early Development, Screenwriter Says
Photo Credit: Ethan Miller
The Britney Spears biopic remains in early development, according to screenwriter Liz Meriwether, who recently discussed the project in interviews with The Hollywood Reporter and Vanity Fair.
Her comments indicate that the project has advanced to screenplay development but is not yet at the stage of publicly confirmed casting, production dates or a formal release schedule.
Universal Pictures has not announced an official release date or disclosed who will portray Spears.
The studio also has not publicly released details about the screenplay’s structure, the portion of Spears’ life that will receive the greatest emphasis or the full creative team beyond the principal names already attached.
Meriwether’s Approach
In the interviews, Meriwether described revisiting Spears’ music and the period in which the singer became one of the most recognizable pop artists in the world.
Meriwether said she and Spears are the same age and that listening to Spears’ music brings her immediately back to the era in which those songs were released.
She also said she had read The Woman in Me and listened multiple times to the audiobook edition narrated by Michelle Williams.
The screenwriter has discussed listening to Spears’ music as part of her preparation, while declining to provide substantive details about the film’s eventual narrative or soundtrack.
Meriwether told Vanity Fair that Spears’ experience was distinctive because it unfolded amid intense public attention and changing forms of media.
She characterized that period as “almost a perfect storm of attention and new forms of media.”
Those remarks describe Meriwether’s perspective on the historical context of Spears’ public life; they do not establish the film’s final themes, plot or tone.
Source Material
The planned film is based on Spears’ memoir The Woman in Me, which was published in October 2023.
The memoir recounts Spears’ rise to fame, her personal relationships, her experiences in the entertainment industry and the 14-year conservatorship that controlled major aspects of her personal and financial affairs.
Universal announced in August 2024 that it had acquired the film rights to the book following a competitive bidding process.
The studio identified Jon M. Chu as director and Marc Platt as producer when the project was announced.
Chu is known for directing Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights and the Wicked films, while Platt produced Wicked and other major film projects.
Spears said in a social-media post at the time of the announcement that she had been working on a project with Platt.
A New Screenwriter Joins
Universal’s appointment of Meriwether as screenwriter was reported in July 2026.
Variety reported that Meriwether would write the screenplay for Universal’s film, with Chu directing and Platt producing.
Deadline reported that Chu had previously worked on a draft and that Meriwether was being brought in to adapt Spears’ memoir for the feature.
Meriwether’s August interviews provide the clearest recent public update on the film’s progress: the screenplay is being developed, but the project has not entered a publicly announced production phase.
What Has Not Been Announced
No official casting has been announced for Spears or for other roles in the film.
No official release date has been announced.
Universal has not publicly confirmed whether Spears will appear onscreen, record new material for the project or participate in any other production role beyond her connection to the memoir’s adaptation.
Reports claiming a specific actor has been selected, that filming is scheduled for a particular year or that the movie will focus on a specific relationship or period should therefore be treated as unconfirmed unless Universal, Spears, Chu, Platt or Meriwether formally announces those details.
For now, the confirmed development is limited to the film’s source material, studio, director, producer and screenwriter, with Meriwether continuing the early work of shaping The Woman in Me for the screen.
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