Lizzo has signed on to star in a captivating biopic about the legendary Rosetta Tharpe, a project currently in the gestation phase at Amazon MGM Studios. Penning the script are the talented Natalie Chaidez (renowned for her work on "The Flight Attendant") and Kwynn Perry ("Tigerbelles"), while the search for a director is still underway.
At the helm of this endeavor are producers Nina Yang Bongiovi and Forest Whitaker, under the banner of Significant Productions, alongside Lizzo herself and Kevin Beisler. Rosetta Tharpe, a gospel singer who soared to fame in the 1930s and '40s, has been hailed as the "Godmother of rock and roll."
The film delves into a pivotal era of Tharpe's life, a time when she was celebrated for her groundbreaking guitar sound and gearing up for a historic concert—the very first stadium show in music history. Amidst this triumph, she also navigated the complexities of concealing her love for another woman.
Lizzo, a four-time Grammy Award winner who graced the silver screen in the 2019 film "Hustlers," continues to make waves. She starred in the Emmy-winning Amazon series "Watch Out for the Big Grrrls" and was the focal point of the 2022 HBO Max documentary "Love, Lizzo." Just this month, she unveiled the single "Still Bad" from her forthcoming fifth studio album.
This biopic marks Lizzo's triumphant return following the challenges posed by multiple sexual harassment lawsuits filed by her former employees in 2023, which she has categorically denied.
Music biopics remain a cornerstone of Hollywood's ambitions, riding high on the success of recent ventures like Paramount's "Bob Marley: One Love" and Searchlight's "A Complete Unknown," starring Timothée Chalamet, which garnered eight Oscar nominations and focused on Bob Dylan. A myriad of projects about iconic figures such as the Beatles, Madonna, the Bee Gees, Queen Latifah, Boyz II Men, and Sublime are also in the pipeline, promising more cinematic journeys through the annals of music history.
