Britney Spears Biopic Is Still in the Works, Liz Meriwether Says

That is where the casting becomes more than a parlor game. The actress who lands this role will have to move through the public shine of Britney Spears and the private weight of what followed. That is a tall order, and the movie still has not named the person who will carry it.

Photos: marcen27 from Glasgow, UK · CC BY 2.0 · source; https://www.flickr.com/photos/marcen27/ · CC BY 2.0 · source

Jon M. Chu still has a blank cast sheet

The director has been careful not to race ahead of the work. As AsiaOne reported, Chu said Spears will be very involved in the film, but he also said they have not really started anything yet. He said he has ideas and an approach, which is what directors say when the door is open but the furniture has not come in.

The internet, of course, has already started doing its favorite thing. AsiaOne noted that Sabrina Carpenter and Sydney Sweeney were among the names suggested for the role, and Just Jared said Millie Bobby Brown, Emma Roberts, and Olivia Holt have all said they would like to play Spears in a biopic. That chatter tells you the appetite is real. It does not tell you who will get the part.

I can see why people start guessing early. A role like this invites it. The actress has to hold the dance, the voice, the tabloid glare, and the person inside the glare. That is not a costume job. It is a long, exacting piece of work, and the film is still far enough away that no one has had to do it yet.

Photos: marcen27 from Glasgow, UK · CC BY 2.0 · source 1, source 2

Why Meriwether thinks now is the right time

Meriwether also told Vanity Fair that she has been listening to music from the years when Spears was making her own hits, partly to get back into the feel of the period. She mentioned songs like Perfume and If I'm Dancing, and she said she is close to Spears' age, which gives her a useful point of contact with the era. That does not write the script for her. It does give her a place to stand.

The timing is the other part of her answer. She sees Spears' story as part of a wider look back at how women in the spotlight were treated in the 1990s and early 2000s. That is a fair reason to make a movie now. The public memory of that period has changed, and stories that once passed as normal can look different when they are seen again.

For now, though, the biggest fact is also the simplest one. There is still no release date, and no one has been named to play Britney Spears.

Every factual claim above is drawn from these. The reading of them is ours.