Selena Gomez to Play Linda Ronstadt in New Biopic
Selena Gomez will play Linda Ronstadt in an upcoming biopic, Variety has confirmed.
The pop singer and “Only Murders in the Building” star teased the role Tuesday night by posting a picture of Ronstadt’s 2013 memoir “Simple Dreams” on her Instagram story.
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The music biopic is currently in pre-production, with producers including Ronstadt’s manager, John Boylan, and James Keach, who produced the 2019 documentary “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice.”
No other casting has been announced.
Ronstadt is a country, rock ‘n’ roll and Latin music legend, with her 1970s albums “Heart Like a Wheel” and “Simple Dreams” reaching critical and commercial success and showcasing her versatility across genres. Throughout her career she has won 11 Grammys, and she was honored by both the Recording Academy and the Latin Recording Academy with Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Ronstadt and Gomez are both of Mexican descent. The latter has been nominated twice for a Golden Globe for her performance on Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building,” which she executive produces and stars in alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short. Gomez broke out as an actor on Disney’s “Wizards of Waverly Place” and achieved success as a music artist with hits like “Lose You to Love Me” and “Love You Like a Love Song.”
Ronstadt’s 2019 doc was directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and chronicled the artist’s nearly five-decade career and domination of the country-rock genre. In 2011, Ronstadt announced her retirement, later revealing she is no longer able to sing due to her progressive supranuclear palsy, which was originally mistaken for Parkinson’s.
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