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Penelope Spheeris’ next project has peace, love, and harmony written all over it. The rock n’ roll savvy director of Wayne’s World has been set to head the biopic of hippie songbird Janis Joplin, aptly titled The Gospel According to Janis. The film, co-written by Spheeris and Brad Vanderburg, will focus on Joplin’s life in California until her untimely death at the age of 27 eight years later.
The initial buzz around the biopic was pink – Alecia “Pink” Moore that is. The pop-singer was originally slated to play Joplin, an idol of hers, but recently backed out of the production. Stepping in (and perhaps a step up) is Zooey Deschanel, the soon to be household name (the girl has eight films in production not including Gospel). Deschanel, who is set to play Liza Minnelli in Daniel Minahan’s Simply Halston, has the look and maybe more importantly the voice to take on the role of Joplin.
A fan of Janis Joplin, but a skeptic about the oh-so-popular musican biopics (We all loved Walk the Line and Ray, but let’s move on), I’m interested to see how this film will pan out and whether or not Deschanel will do the Southern Comfort loving blues queen justice.