Grease director Randal Kleiser will bring the tragic story of Janis Joplin to the big screen in a currently undated film titled Pearl. Casting is currently under way with an expected mid-August start for the film which will work off a script from Gregory Lee Kenyon.
Several Joplin biopics have been in the works over the last decade with none ever making their way to the screen. Kleiser’s version will portray Joplin as an “untrammeled force of nature” and explore the “crippling insecurity” that lead to the drug and alcohol problems that lead to her death from an overdose at 27 years old. The film’s title, Pearl, shares the title of her second and final album, which she finished recording just prior to her death.
