Liz Meriwether to Write Britney Spears Biopic for Universal
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Liz Meriwether will pen the screenplay for Universal's Britney Spears biopic, directed by Jon M. Chu and produced by Marc Platt.
- The film adapts Spears' memoir "The Woman in Me," which sold 1.1 million copies in its first week after its October 2023 release.
- Michelle Williams narrated the memoir's audiobook — the fastest-selling in Simon & Schuster's history — and later starred in Meriwether's "Dying for Sex."
- Universal Pictures acquired the biopic rights in August 2024, with Platt's production company already under a longstanding deal at the studio; Spears confirmed the "secret project" on social media.
- Meriwether is a WGA winner for "Dying for Sex" and a PGA winner for Hulu's "The Dropout," with four Primetime Emmy nominations across both limited series.
- Her breakthrough came in 2011, writing the Natalie Portman–Ashton Kutcher rom-com "No Strings Attached" and creating Fox's "New Girl," which ran for seven seasons.
- Page Six first reported Meriwether's involvement; Universal declined to comment.
Why it matters: Universal is anchoring a biopic built on a memoir that sold 1.1 million copies in its first week with a writer whose recent prestige-TV résumé — WGA and PGA wins for "Dying for Sex" and "The Dropout" — points toward a serious-drama adaptation, a tonal shift from her rom-com roots. The hire follows Chu's August 2024 attachment under Platt's existing Universal deal.
