The life story of actor, singer and all-around icon Cher is bound for the big screen.
The Oscar winner made the announcement on Twitter Wednesday, a day shy of her 75th birthday. The film’s screenplay, she said, will be written by Eric Roth, who won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for 1994’s “Forrest Gump” and was nominated for his work on 2008’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and 2018’s “A Star Is Born.”
Judy Craymer and Gary Goetzman, who produced the ABBA movie musical “Mamma Mia!” and its sequel, have also joined the creative team, she added.
Craymer confirmed the plans in a statement.
“Gary and I are thrilled to be working with Cher again and this time bringing her empowering and true life odyssey to the big screen. One cannot help but be drawn to and inspired by Cher’s larger than life talent, fortitude, unique wit, warmth and vision,” she said, according to Deadline. “Her unparalleled success in music film and TV have inspired generations. We could not be happier to tell her story to cinema audiences.”
Superstar biopics are, of course, a hot Hollywood commodity these days.
Thus far, the most successful has been 2018’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which netted Rami Malek an Oscar for his performance as Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. The following year, Taron Egerton took on the role of Elton John in “Rocketman,” which raked in $195 million at the box office worldwide. And last fall, Madonna announced she was working with “Juno” screenwriter Diablo Cody on a film based on her life that she also planned to direct.
As is the case with those legends, there are countless moments in Cher’s six-decade, record-smashing career that are ripe for dramatization. There’s her rise to fame in the 1960s and ’70s alongside former husband Sonny Bono, followed by her storied film career that culminated in an Oscar win for 1998’s “Moonstruck.”
Then, of course, there’s her more recent reinvention as a 21st-century dance floor diva, spearheaded by the 1998 smash “Believe.”
When a fan griped that they’d been waiting for the biopic for “50 years,” Cher playfully shot back as only Cher could.
Cher’s life story was previously adapted as the 2019 musical “The Cher Show,” in which a trio of actors portrayed her at various ages.
Stephanie J. Block, whose stage credits include “Wicked” and “Falsettos,” received a Tony Award for playing the “Star” version of Cher on Broadway.
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