EXCLUSIVE: A24 is adding to its partnership with megastar Zendaya and her film on the life of singer Ronnie Spector, with Barry Jenkins coming on board to direct with Dave Kajganich tapped to write an original screenplay. Zendaya will play the legendary songstress and according to sources, the star and Jenkins, who’d been looking to […]EXCLUSIVE: A24 is adding to its partnership with megastar Zendaya and her film on the life of singer Ronnie Spector, with Barry Jenkins coming on board to direct with Dave Kajganich tapped to write an original screenplay. Zendaya will play the legendary songstress and according to sources, the star and Jenkins, who’d been looking to
EXCLUSIVE: A24 is adding to its partnership with megastar Zendaya and her film on the life of singer Ronnie Spector, with Barry Jenkins coming on board to direct with Dave Kajganich tapped to write an original screenplay. Zendaya will play the legendary songstress and according to sources, the star and Jenkins, who’d been looking to work together for some time, agreed on a version of Spector’s story that could immerse audiences in what the singer’s life with the troubled producer Phil Spector felt like rather than a traditional cradle to the grave biopic.
We are hearing the deals for Spector’s life rights and for Be My Baby, the memoir she wrote with Vince Waldron, remain in tact. The film is in development with Luca Guadagnino writer Kajganich is hard at work on an expressive interpretation of Spector’s life Zendaya and Jenkins are after.
A24 landed the hot spec in 2022 and will produce along with Marc Platt, Adam Siegel, Mark Itkin, Tom Shelly, and Zendaya. Jonathan Greenfield will executive produce. Before her passing, Spector was an executive producer on the film and hand-selected Zendaya to play her. Adele Romanski and Mark Ceryak, Jenkin’s partners at Pastel, will also be joining as producers.
Watch on Deadline
This marks yet another collaboration for A24 and Jenkins, including Best Picture winner Moonlight and the upcoming Sundance darling Sorry, Baby, in which Jenkins served as a producer. This is also the third collaboration for A24 and Zendaya following the Emmy-Award winning Euphoria and the upcoming film The Drama co-starring Robert Pattinson. She is repped by CAA and Monster Talent Management, and Granderson Des Rochers.
Jenkins recently directed Mufasa for Disney which has crossed $700 million at the global box office. The film recently hit another milestone becoming the sixth highest grossing film of 2024, passing Dune Part Two. He most notably directed Best Picture Winner Moonlight, which also won him the Oscar for Adapted Screenplay. Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk received three Oscar nominations and won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Film. His limited series Underground Railroad won him best limited series at the Golden Globes and BAFTA and earned Jenkins a DGA Award for Best Director. It also scored seven Emmy nominations.
He also recently teamed with busy A-lister Glen Powell on the adult sci-fi pic The Natural Order for Universal. The pic is based on the upcoming novel by Matt Aldrich and has Powell starring and Jenkins directing. Jenkins is repped by CAA, manager Jewerl Keats Ross and lawyer Jamie Feldman.
Kajganich’s screenwriting credits include three films for Luca Guadagnino, A Bigger Splash, Suspiria and Bones and All, as well as creating and running the first season of AMC’s The Terror. He is repped by Anonymous Content, UTA and Jackoway, Austen, Tyerman and Wertheimer.
Discover more from World Byte News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.