‘Wicked’ Director Claims Britney Spears Biopic Still Has a ‘Long Way to Go’

Director’s Update on Britney Spears Biopic

Wicked director Jon M. Chu has hinted at a potentially lengthy wait for the much-anticipated Britney Spears biopic – check out his remarks below.

• READ MORE: 'Wicked' Review: Popular Musical Makes Gravity-Defying Leap to the Big Screen

Development Status

In early August of last year, it was reported that Spears was working on her own biopic, which would be directed by Wicked‘s Jon M. Chu, and based on her recent memoir, The Woman in Me. “Excited to tell my fans that I am working on a secret project with #MarcPlatt,” she shared on social media at the time. “He always made my favorite movies… stay tuned.”

In November, Chu confirmed that the film was still in the “early concept” stage, with no writer hired for the script yet. Recently, Chu shared an important update while speaking to Billboard at the 2025 Golden Globes: “I’m a huge Britney fan. I was a fan from a young age, and she was young, and she was one of 12 performers at the Shrine Auditorium. So I want to do her justice and tell her story correctly. But we’ll see. We are developing it now, and there is a long way to go.”

Talking to Entertainment Tonight about the same topic, Chu confirmed Spears’ engagement in the film: “She will be very involved. I haven’t fully started anything yet, but she will be very involved in it. I have ideas and things, an approach, but it’s very early.”

Confusion Over Project Nature

Despite the initial announcement of the project, Spears sparked confusion in September by suggesting that the “secret project” she was collaborating on with Chu was not a biopic of her life, but a “fictional musical.”

“You’ll have to ask Britney what she meant by all of this,” Chu remarked when questioned about her post. “But she put my name on one of her Instagrams or tweets. It’s an honor. I like it. I think she enjoys teasing the audience in different ways. So it may be a bit of a mystery on her part, but I’m really excited to work with her.”

The Woman in Me was a massive success upon its release, selling over 2.5 million copies in the US alone, and reaching a million copies worldwide in the first week of October 2023. Additionally, the audiobook, narrated by Hollywood star Michelle Williams and featuring an introduction by Spears, has become the best-selling book in Simon & Schuster’s history.

The book revealed several remarkable insights through a candid discussion about her career, relationships, and personal experiences during her 13 years of conservatorship. One of the most notable revelations was that she had an abortion while dating Justin Timberlake, between 1998 and 2002, as he believed they were “not ready to have a child in our lives” and were “too young.”