Variety has verified that Selena Gomez will portray Linda Ronstadt in an upcoming biopic.
The pop sensation and “Only Murders in the Building” star posted an image of Ronstadt’s 2013 memoir “Simple Dreams” to her Instagram story on Tuesday night, teasing the role.
At this time, pre-production is underway for the music biopic, which is being produced by James Keach, who also oversaw the 2019 documentary “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice,” and John Boylan, the manager of Linda Ronstadt.
An additional casting has not been disclosed.
Ronstadt is a legendary figure in the fields of country, rock ‘n’ roll, and Latin music. Her critically and commercially successful 1970s albums “Simple Dreams” and “Heart Like a Wheel” demonstrated her versatility across genres. She has received eleven Grammys and Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the Recording Academy and the Latin Recording Academy over the course of her career.
Both Gomez and Ronstadt have Mexican ancestry. She has been nominated twice for a Golden Globe for her performance on “Only Murders in the Building,” a Hulu production in which she co-stars and executive produces with Steve Martin and Martin Short. Gomez debuted as an actor in Disney’s “Wizards of Waverly Place” and went on to produce successful singles such as “Love You Like a Love Song” and “Lose You to Love Me” to achieve commercial success.
Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, Ronstadt’s 2019 documentary detailed the artist’s country-rock dominance and nearly five-decade career. Ronstadt declared her retirement in 2011, subsequently disclosing that she is unable to perform vocal performances on account of progressive supranuclear palsy, an initial misdiagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.
