Barry Jenkins and Zendaya are set to collaborate on a movie about music legend Ronnie Spector, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
Jenkins will direct the biopic, with Zendaya to play the American songstress who co-founded and fronted the 1960s girl group the Ronettes. Dave Kajganich penned an original screenplay about the life of Spector, who became popular along with the Ronettes for songs like “Be My Baby” and “Walking in the Rain.”
It’s understood Jenkins and Zendaya have arrived at a version of Spector’s life that aims to immerse audiences in what the singer’s life with the troubled producer Phil Spector felt like, rather than a traditional career trajectory biopic.
Spector died in Jan. 2022 at age 78 years after a brief battle with cancer. The Ronettes’ look and powerful voices, assisted by songwriting and producing help from Phil Spector, turned them into one of the premier acts of the girl-group era, as they toured England with The Rolling Stones and befriended The Beatles.
After touring Germany in 1967, The Ronettes broke up. Spector married Ronnie in 1968, then she said he kept her locked in their Beverly Hills mansion. Her 1990 autobiography, Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts and Madness, tells an unhappy story of abuse. The couple divorced in 1974. Phil Spector was sent to prison in 2009 for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson and died in 2020.
A24 acquired the hot spec script in 2022 and Jenkins and Zendaya have teamed together to bring the project to the big screen. A24 will share producer credits with Zendaya, Marc Platt, Adam Siegel, Mark Itkin, and Tom Shelly, while Jonathan Greenfield will executive produce.
Deadline was first to report on the Ronnie Spector project for A24.