Jon M. Chu still has his hands full promoting “Wicked” ahead of the Academy Awards in March, after which he needs to prep its second part, “Wicked: For Good,” for release in November 2025.
But the Palo Alto-born director also talked up his next big project on the red carpet at the 82nd Golden Globes awards Sunday, where “Wicked” went on to win a prize for cinematic and box achievement. It was announced in August that Chu would helm a screen adaptation about the life of Britney Spears, based on her best-selling 2023 memoir, “The Woman in Me.”
While Chu told an “Entertainment Tonight” reporter that he hasn’t gotten too deep into the Spears project yet, he said that the pop mega-star would be a part of the development process.
“She’s going to be very involved,” Chu told Entertainment Tonight. “I haven’t really started anything fully yet, but she will be very involved in this. I have ideas and things, an approach, but it’s very early.”
Going back to his breakout hit with the 2018 romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians,” Chu seems to have a gift for filming stories about women. With “Wicked,” he notably showcased a sympathetic story about a female protagonist, Elphaba Thropp, who has an extraordinary talent and drive for using it, but who also is deeply misunderstood. It seems that Chu’s empathy for such a character would serve him well as he prepares to tell Spears’ story.
It also helps that Chu has long admired Spears, as he told Billboard before the Golden Globes.
“I’m a big fan of Britney,” Chu said. “I’ve been a fan since I was young and she was young and she was one of 12 acts at the Shrine Auditorium. So I want to do her justice and tell her story right. But we’ll see. We’re developing it now and it’s a long road ahead.”
As Chu explained, he hasn’t worked out whether the Spears biopic will cover her entire life up until recently, which would mean following her complicated childhood in Louisiana, her breakthrough role on “The Mickey Mouse Club,” her pop mega-stardom, her mental health breakdown and her 13-year conservatorship.
As Entertainment Weekly reported, Chu could choose to focus on a specific but significant period in the singer’s life. This is an approach that’s proved successful for other biopics, notably this year’s “A Complete Unknown,” starring Timothée Chalamet, which focused on the buildup to Bob Dylan going electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
Chu said that the way that he and his collaborators decide to tell Spears’ story will help determine the actor they cast to play her. Entertainment Weekly noted that the internet has been swirling with potential casting rumors, with Sydney Sweeney, Addison Rae, Dove Cameron and pop star Sabrina Carpenter emerging as potential contenders. But Chu said those decisions are still some time away.
“I’ve seen all fan castings and I always take those into consideration, because maybe there’s a good idea out there,” Chu told “Entertainment Tonight.” “But we’ll have to see what the approach of the movie is before we know who’s right for it.”
For the time being, Chu is focused on “Wicked,” and enjoying its success. The musical fantasy film, a prequel to “The Wizard of Oz,” has grossed more than $600 million at the global box office and become a pop culture sensation for many movie fans.
It doesn’t hurt that its stars, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, are garnering acclaim and awards buzz for playing future witches Elphaba and Glinda, respectively. Awards prognosticators at the Gold Derby say that “Wicked” has a good chance of nabbing Oscar nominations for best picture and for Erivo and Grande in the best actress and best supporting actress categories.
For the Golden Globes, “Wicked” was nominated for a total of four awards, including best motion picture — musical or comedy; and for Erivo and Grande in leading and supporting actress categories. “Wicked” came away winning the award for cinematic and box office achievement, and Chu was chosen to accept the prize on the production’s behalf.
Surrounded by Erivo, Grande, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh and other cast and crew members, Chu began his speech by mentioning his upbringing by Chinese immigrant parents in the South Bay. His parents, Lawrence and Ruth Chu, happen to be local icons by running the famous Chef Chu’s restaurant in Los Altos.
“They’d tell us about the yellow brick road and the place over the rainbow, where all dreams come true if you dare to dream it,” Chu said. “So I’m up here looking at you, living the dream and looking at this beautiful, beautiful cast. It’s more beautiful than I ever thought it could be.”