Zendaya Will Be Barry Jenkins’s Baby in Ronnie Spector Biopic

Get ready for winged eyeliner to come back with a vengeance. Zendaya and Barry Jenkins are reportedly teaming up on a film about Ronnie Spector for A24. According to Deadline Dave Kajganich (Bones and All) is writing the screenplay, based on Spector’s memoir with Vince Waldron, Be My Baby. Rather than be a biopic about Spector’s entire life, the film will “immerse audiences in what the singer’s life with the troubled producer Phil Spector felt like.”

Ronnie Spector met volatile producer Phil Spector when she was 17. The group she formed with her sister and cousin, the Ronettes, had their biggest hits under Spector’s label. The couple married in 1968. In her memoir, Ronnie Spector described being married to Phil as an unending nightmare. He screamed at her every time she spoke, until she became mute. He abused her. And he kept her shoes so she couldn’t leave the house without his approval. Barefoot, Ronnie escaped in 1972.

Zendaya got Spector’s blessing to play her before her death in 2022. In an Instagram tribute to the late singer, Zendaya wrote “Ronnie, being able to know you has been one of the greatest honors of my life. Thank you for sharing your life with me, I could listen to your stories for hours and hours. Thank you for your unmeasured talent, your unwavering love for performing, your strength, resilience and your grace.” She ended the post saying “I hope to make you proud.”

• [deadline]

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