Selena Gomez to Play Linda Ronstadt in Upcoming Biopic About the Singer's Life
It has been confirmed that actress and singer Selena Gomez (Only Murders in the Building) is officially signed on to star in a biopic about the life of singer/songwriter musician Linda Ronstadt, based on her 2013 memoir, Simple Dreams. Rumors had been floating around for the last several months, but had gone unconfirmed until Gomez posted a photo of the memoir as an Instagram Story.
The movie is in pre-production, with James Keach and Ronstadt’s longtime manager John Boylan co-producing. Additional casting and release date have not been announced.
Keach directed the 2020 film Linda and the Mockingbirds, a documentary chronicling a road trip undertaken by Ronstadt, Jackson Browne and a group of younger musicians to the Mexican town of Banámichi in the state of Sonora, the birthplace of Ronstadt’s grandfather.
Both Gomez, who has had a successful music career in addition to acting, and Ronstadt are of Mexican descent, and Ronstadt wrote at length about her heritage in the 2013 memoir. The singer returned to the subject in the 2022 book Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands.
Despite her 2012 retirement following a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease – the diagnosis was revised seven years later to progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative disease similar to Parkinson’s that has left Ronstadt unable to sing – Ronstadt and her music have returned to the spotlight in recent months. Last year her 1970 recording of “Long Long Time” was featured prominently in an episode of The Last of Us, and trailers for Ryan Murphy’s upcoming FX series Feud: Capote vs. The Swans make heavy use of Ronstadt’s smash 1974 hit “You’re No Good.”
The 2019 documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, offered an in-depth retrospective of her life and career, featuring on-screen appearances by and interviews with Ronstadt and her many musical friends and colleagues, including Browne, Ry Cooder, Emmylou Harris, Don Henley, Kevin Kline, Dolly Parton, Bonnie Raitt and J.D. Souther.
It will be cool to see who else gets cast in the film as the various musicians in Ronstadt’s life. I love Linda Ronstadt. Her voice was one of the ones I know has been in my life since I was born, and I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the songs “Long Long Time,” and “Different Drum.” I look forward to seeing Gomez take on the role, and sing her heart out as this beloved songstress.
via: Deadline