American singer, actor Selena Gomez is set to play Linda Ronstadt in an upcoming biopic based on the singer’s 2013 memoir titled Simple Dreams and a director is now attached to the project.
James Keach and Ronstadt’s longtime manager, John Boylan, are co-producing the film, which is currently in pre-production. Signing up to direct the film is David O. Russell, Variety reports.
Ronstadt is a rock, country and Latin music star who found success with albums like Heart Like a Wheel, Prisoner in Disguise, Hasten Down the Wind, Simple Dreams, Living in the USA, among many others. In a career that spans multiple decades, Ronstadt recorded 29 studio albums and won 11 Grammys, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music Awards and one Emmy. In 2011, Ronstadt was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Latin Grammys.
Ronstadt charted on Spotify in 2023 with her 1970 recording of “Long Long Time,” a song that was prominently featured in an episode of HBO’s The Last of Us. The song surged in streams, increasing by 4900% in U.S. streams after the episode aired on the premium cable network.
The 2019 documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, chronicled the singer’s life and career. Ronstadt retired in 2011 following a progressive supranuclear palsy.