Two years on from her bestselling memoir, The Woman in Me, it’s been confirmed that a Britney Spears biopic is in the works. Directed by Wicked’s Jon M. Chu, the movie is the result of a dramatic bidding war, with Universal Pictures winning the rights to produce the adaptation.
The result of a reported £12.3 million book deal, the memoir detailed the 43-year-old pop star’s battles with mental illness and 13-year conservatorship. Revealing intimate details about her life in the spotlight, it touched on her abortion while dating Justin Timberlake, a grueling Las Vegas residency and her exploitation in the music industry.
An official release date hasn’t yet been set for the film, but rumours are already rife about who could potentially play the singer. Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter and Sydney Sweeney have all been thrown in the mix, with Chu writing on X last week that the film isn’t yet in the casting process. "I have not had one conversation about casting this movie yet,” he said.
The tell-all memoir was critically acclaimed for its candid account of her rise to fame, but Spears admitted some parts were too painful to retell. As such, Michelle Williams narrated the audio version of the memoir.
While details remain thin on the ground for the biopic, the movie will likely follow a similar structure to the book, including her struggle to end a 13-year court-ordered conservatorship.
Chu has told Entertainment Tonight that “she’s going to be very involved.” So, if you’re as excited as us, why not dive into the singer’s memoir for the very first time? Here’s where to read it, plus how to listen to Williams’ audio adaptation.
‘The Woman in Me’ by Britney Spears, published by Gallery UK: Was £9.99, now £5, Amazon.co.uk
Britney Spears’s memoir became an instant bestseller upon its release in 2023. An empowering rebuke of the music industry, public perceptions of her and her family's role in the conservatorship, The Woman in Me recounts Spears’s journey to stardom and attempts to silence her.
The book lifts the lid on what really happened in the run-up and aftermath of her highly publicised breakdown and hospitalisation in 2008. Following a series of public incidents, the singer was forced into a conservatorship that gave her father, Jamie Spears, control over her personal and financial affairs for nearly 14 years. A judge terminated the conservatorship in November 2021, and the singer is now estranged from her family.
The pop star also touches on her relationship with singer Justin Timberlake. The famous pair dated in their late teens and early Twenties, with Spears revealing in the book that she became pregnant with Timberlake’s baby but had an abortion. She alleges in the memoir that he told her to have an abortion and cheated on her with another celebrity.
As well as writing candidly about her private life, she recounts some of her most iconic performances, such as “I’m a Slave 4 U” at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards (that moment where she held a yellow Burmese python over her shoulders).
With the movie based on the memoir, the book and Michelle Williams’ audio adaptation (99p, Amazon.co.uk) give us a flavour of what to expect.
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