New Joplin Movie Greenlit

A LITTLE PIECE OF HER HEART: The Janis Joplin biopic, which has been linked in the past to everyone from Melissa Etheridge to Amy Adams and Renee Zellweger, is finally going to be made. The movie will star Tony-winning actress Nina Arianda (Venus in Fur) and be directed by Sean Durkin, who made his debut with the critically praised indie movie Martha Marcy May Marlene. Producer Peter Newman has been trying to get the film into production for the past dozen years, and has secured the rights to Joplin’s music and life story. Arianda recently appeared in the motion pictures Midnight in Paris and Tower Heist, but this will be her first starring role. Joplin will focus on the last six months of the Texas-born musician's career, though it will also include flashbacks to her early life. Newman holds the rights to the collection of letters Love, Janis and Piece of My Heart, the book written by Rolling Stone reporter David Dalton, who traveled withJoplin during the six months before the heroin overdose which killed her in 1970. (7/10p)