Cher Biopic from MAMMA MIA! Producers in the Works

The life story of entertainment icon Cher is on the way to the big screen, courtesy of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again producers, Judy Craymer and Gary Goetzman, and Universal Pictures.

Eric Roth, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Forrest Gump and A Star is Born, will supply the script.

According to Deadline, most details of the film are still under wraps, but the film will not be a "break-into-song musical like Mamma Mia! and probably more likely a closer cousin to a biopic like Bohemian Rhapsody."

Cher's story recently received the musical treatment with 2019's The Cher Show, which took home two Tony Awards for Best Costume Design for Cher's longtime collaborator Bob Mackie and one for the show's star, Stephanie J. Block.

Cher became acquainted with Craymer and Goetzman while filming the 2018 movie musical sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again!

Craymer told Deadline, "Gary and I are thrilled to be working with Cher again and this time bringing her empowering and true life odyssey to the big screen. One cannot help but be drawn to and inspired by Cher's larger than life talent, fortitude, unique wit, warmth and vision," Craymer said. "Her unparalleled success in music film and TV have inspired generations. We could not be happier to tell her story to cinema audiences."

Cher tweeted the news this afternoon:

Cher gained popularity in 1965 as one-half of the folk rock husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher after their song "I Got You Babe" peaked at number one on the US and UK charts. By the end of 1967, they had sold 40 million records worldwide and had become, according to Time magazine, rock's "it" couple. She began her solo career simultaneously, releasing in 1966 the transatlantic top three single "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)". She became a television personality in the 1970s with her CBS shows The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, watched by over 30 million viewers weekly during its three-year run, and Cher. She emerged as a fashion trendsetter by wearing elaborate outfits on her television shows.

While working on television, Cher established herself as a solo artist with the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves", "Half-Breed", and "Dark Lady", becoming the female artist with the most number-one singles in United States history at the time. After her divorce from Sonny Bono in 1975, she launched a comeback with the disco album Take Me Home (1979) and earned $300,000 a week for her 1979-1982 concert residency in Las Vegas.

In 1982, Cher made her Broadway debut in the play Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and starred in its film adaptation. She subsequently garnered critical acclaim for her performances in films such as Silkwood (1983), Mask (1985), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), and Moonstruck (1987), the latter of which won her the Academy Award for Best Actress. She then revived her music career by recording the rock-inflected albums Cher (1987), Heart of Stone (1989), and Love Hurts (1991), all of which yielded successful singles such as "I Found Someone", "If I Could Turn Back Time", and "Love and Understanding". Cher contributed to the soundtrack for her next film, Mermaids (1990), which spawned the UK number-one single "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)". She made her directorial debut with a segment in the abortion-themed anthology If These Walls Could Talk (1996), which received widespread critical acclaim after premiering on HBO.

Cher reached a new commercial peak in 1998 with the dance-pop album Believe, whose title track won her the Billboard Music Award for Hot 100 Single of the Year and became the biggest-selling single of all time by a female artist in the UK. It features pioneering use of Auto-Tune to distort her vocals, known as the "Cher effect". Her 2002-2005 Living Proof: The Farewell Tour became one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time, earning $250 million. In 2008, she signed a $180 million deal to headline the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for three years. In 2018, Cher returned to film for her first on-screen role since 2010's Burlesque, starring in the musical romantic comedy film Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Inspired by the film, the album Dancing Queen (2018) debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, tying with 2013's Closer to the Truth for Cher's highest-charting solo album in the US.

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