Bad news Amy fans. IMDb has taken Get it While You Can off of the list of Amy projects. While they are not guaranteed to be 100% accurate, this does not bode well for the project. I will do some digging and see if I can find out any further information. For now, I will leave the links on the sidebar in hopes that it will still happen.

For those who haven’t watched the most recent interview with Amy on the Rachael Ray Show, they talked very briefly about the upcoming biopic about Janis Joplin called Get it While You Can. As you all know, Amy is to play Janis Joplin. Not much was said but Amy did state that the project was in development and when asked if she was going to tackle Janis’ unique style of singing, Amy had this to say: “As much as I can, absolutely. I’m gonna go for it.” Exciting!

Don’t forget, you can view the entire Rachael Ray interview at our media archives.

This means that as of September 30th, this project is still a go. I’m keeping my fingers crossed! Janis was an amazing artist and I would love to see a biopic dedicated to her see the light of day.

Amy Adams is known for playing characters with sunny dispositions, but the Oscar-nominated star is getting ready to play what may prove to be her most challenging role to date.

“It’s there,” she said with a smile at this week’s Variety Power Women’s Luncheon, when we asked if it was confirmed that she would be playing late rocker Janis Joplin in an upcoming biopic about her life.

But taking on the character of one of America’s edgiest, most esteemed music legends comes with mixed emotions for 36-year-old Adams.

“I’m feeling excited, scared – all of the things,” Adams said, adding that she was a huge fan of Joplin, who died in 1970 at the age of 27.

- source

Amy is featured in a very short article in the newest issue of Entertainment Weekly. The article is a quarter page feature on the upcoming Janis project and the many names that have been attached to previous versions. Thanks to my friend Becca, we have a scan of this in our 2010 Clippings section of the gallery.

Related Links:
- Press > Scans from 2010 > Clippings From 2010

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that they have confirmation from Amy’s reps that she has agreed to play Janis Joplin in Get it While You Can. They then go on to talk about the difficulties this project still faces – including what I posted a couple days ago about the music rights. A quick blurb from the article is below and you can read it in its entirety here.

As for the Adams/Meirelles project, which is called Get it While You Can, the script from musician-turned-writer Ron Terry had been owned by Fox Searchlight for the last few years. In fact, around three years ago, Catherine Hardwicke and Reese Witherspoon was a possible director/star combination being discussed. That didn’t come together, and the project lay dormant until Temple Hill found a common vision with Brazilian filmmaker Meirelles. In an ideal world, sources say Meirelles would begin filming the biopic at the end of the year — if his other project, 360, can’t come together.

According to this source, it appears that the Janis Joplin movie won’t be filmed any time soon – if ever. My Portuguese is very poor but from what I can make out using my limited skills and Babelfish, they are experiencing issues with getting the rights to her music. The supposed director, Fernando Meirelles, says “I will not direct a film on Janis Joplin, the least not in the next year.” He then continues with

“But the musical producer that has the rights of musics of Janis Joplin did not like it. I believe that it wanted a film more to the life of the singer, as a staged set of documentation, without as many freedoms. As this way does not please me, the project was in an impasse.”

This does not mean for sure that the entire project is canceled. It could be that they’ll find another director. Or maybe wait until they can get the music rights. But until we know more, it’s hard to say. I’m still considering this, and all Janis Joplin movie related news, as role rumors. On a side note, I really do hope they find a way to make this movie. It would be really great to see Amy play something so completely different from what we’re used to seeing.

The news that I first posted back on June 22nd and made an update on a few days ago has just now become a hot topic on the web. Several sites are blogging/posting about this movie and Amy’s involvement in it. I’ve read through several of them and none of them offer any more information than we already know. Except one. Deadline claims that they can confirm Amy’s attachment to the movie.

Today the website Fearnet had an interview with film producer Wyck Godfrey about the Twilight Saga, and the subject of a long-in-the-works Janis Joplin biopic came up. Godfrey mentioned in passing that Amy Adams would play the 1960s singer. I can tell you that Amy is indeed confirmed in the role for the film to be directed by Fernando Meirelles (City Of God). There’s no studio involved yet, and the script has been through several drafts.

This is not a site I frequent so I can’t vouch for their accuracy. I’ve put out a few emails but I am honestly not expecting a reply back. So once again we wait. I will, of course, keep you all updated.

If you visit the Amy Adams page on IMDb, you will see that Amy is now credited as Janis in the upcoming Janis Joplin: Get it While You Can. This alone does not a confirmation make. IMDb, while an excellent source of information and trivia, is notorious for getting projects that are in pre-production wrong. If you click on the link for the movie, it shows both Amy and Zooey Deschanel as having the part.

I did do some research though and found another interview with Wyck Godfrey. Like the one I previously posted, this one only has the briefest mention of the film and Amy’s connection to it. The full interview is posted here and you’ll want to fast forward to around the 09:45 mark to hear this: “I’ve got a Channing Tatum 10-year high school reunion movie that we’re working on that’s gonna be fun. We’re working on a Janis Joplin movie with Fernando Meirelles and Amy Adams. So we got a lot of things cooking.”

Confirmed? To be honest, I have no idea. But I will continue to search out more information and will share anything I find.

The way we’ve always run things is we work on things together up until one’s going, and either I oversee a movie or he oversees a movie during production and we give each other our other points of view while we’re in post. So while I was doing Twilight and New Moon he was doing Dear John. While I was doing Eclipse he was doing Everything Must Go. During Breaking Dawn we have a couple of films that’ll probably go that he’ll be overseeing; one’s a Fernando Meirelles Janis Joplin movie with Amy Adams playing Janis Joplin. The other is a ten-year high school reunion movie that Jamie Linden, who wrote Dear John, is writing and directing, and hopefully Channing Tatum and a bunch of his buddies are going to do it.

- source

This definitely falls under the category of role rumors since I can find no other information about it.  If true, this would be an amazing role and opportunity for Amy. I know she has the acting chops to pull off such a complicated and multi-layered character, but can she do justice to the singing? We all know Amy can sing but Janis’s voice was unique and something that defined her.  I wonder if Amy would be able to capture that.  What are your thoughts?