Jon M. Chu Won't Cast Britney Biopic Until Script Is Locked — SkimNews
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- Jon M. Chu told reporters he is "not even thinking about casting" his Britney Spears biopic, saying the priority is "trying to get the story right" before any roles are filled
- Chu revealed he has read glimpses of Liz Meriwether's screenplay, calling her work "incredible, profound, beautiful" but declining to share details
- Chu said he receives "hundreds of emails every day" from people worldwide submitting auditions unsolicited for the biopic
- Liz Meriwether boarded the project in July to write the screenplay, based on Spears's bestselling 2023 memoir "The Women in Me," and told Variety the challenge is adapting the material into a "two-hour story as opposed to like an eight-hour story"
- Marc Platt is producing the film under his deal with Universal Pictures, which landed the biopic rights roughly two years ago, prompting Spears to tweet about a "secret project" at the time
- Chu declined to confirm whether he has been spending time with Spears, saying only "I cannot say anything right now," while sharing that he's been introducing his children to her early catalog including "Soda Pop" and "E-mail My Heart"
Why it matters: Chu's casting-first stance pushes back against fan-casting speculation that has been building since Universal announced the project, signaling that the film remains firmly in script-development limbo rather than production. With Meriwether publicly grappling with the two-hour format challenge and hundreds of unsolicited auditions piling up daily, the studio's timeline effectively hinges on her draft — meaning any Britney role stays unresolved until she delivers.
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