Seven years after her untimely death in a plane crash, Mexican-American Banda singer Jenni Rivera‘s life story will be told on the big screen.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday the recording artist and actress’ family is working with film producers Javier Chapa, Simon Wise, and Donald De Line to adapt a biographical screenplay from writer Kate Lanier, who previously wrote the Oscar-nominated Tina Turner biopic What’s Love Got to Do with It and F. Gary Gray’s female heist drama Set It Off.
Currently untitled, the project will be a co-production between Jenni Rivera Enterprises, Mucho Mas Media and De Line Pictures and will chronicle the superstar’s rise to fame as well as her bouts with abuse and sexual assault, as well as incorporating “universal themes of love, loss, success, and cultural change,” per producer’s statement.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Rivera’s sister Rosie told the publication, noting that her sibling long desired to put her experiences on film as a means to help other women. “I loved her strength. No matter what she was going through, she always found a lesson in it.”
The film will reportedly be presented in English, with some Spanish dialogue. Several unreleased songs will also be included in the finished version.
“I think it is so very important, especially now, that she is a Latina born to immigrant parents,” Rosie continued. “A woman, an underdog, daughter of immigrant parents who lived the American Dream…. I remember her tears, and I want her whole 43 years of what she went through to touch somebody. Every single tear, I want it to be worth it.”
The popular, California-born singer — known as the “Diva de la Banda” for her success in the traditional, male-dominated regional genre — was a 43-year-old mother of five and had two grandchildren at the time of her death in December 2012, when a small plane carrying her and six others crashed in northern Mexico shortly after a performance in Monterey. At the time of her death, she had sold approximately 15 million records on top of scoring several Latin Grammy nods.
Rivera’s first feature film role in the indie drama Filly Brown (opposite Gina Rodriguez) debuted posthumously in 2013, while Emilio Estefan is preparing a documentary about the last six days of her life (including a chronicle of her final live performance the night before she died).
A release date, casting details, and a director for the untitled biopic have yet to be announced. Representatives for various producers involved in the project — as well as a representative for Jenni Rivera Enterprises — did not immediately respond to EW’s request for further comment or details.
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