Not all of us have prepared ourselves for the day when that most immaculate of occasions would get announced, but we're all lucky. For today, it was announced that Lifetime will be bringing its patented OMGWTF original movies approach to the life and times of entertainment juggernaut Britney Spears. And she'll be played by young actress Natasha Bassett, who most recently appeared in the Ethan and Joel Coen's Hail Caesar.
I know, I know. All of you are angry because this project wasn't on your radar with enough time for you to slap together an audition video. But do not let this Bassett's casting stop you from becoming Britney at home each and every day.
Britney Jean, as the project will be called, is set to run the gamut of Britney Spears' life in its two-hour runtime. Things will begin with Spears' humble beginnings in Louisiana and go through her early career and subsequent rocketing to the top of the pop music-sphere. The more "toxic" parts of her life will show up as well, such as her paparazzi-spawning relationship with Justin Timberlake, her parents' failed marriage, her brief and widely criticized marriages to Jason Alexander and Kevin Federline, and her highly publicized downfall into quasi-insanity. At least one bald cap will be in this movie, right?
Of course, entering adulthood as a millionaire would likely take a toll on anyone, and Spears thankfully escaped from that darkness and is currently still enjoying her career resurgence. According to THR, that upward climb will also be represented in Britney Jean, though I'm sure the TV movie will stick to the wacky and headline-making material more than the redemptive arc.
Penning the script for Britney Jean will be TV editor-turned-writer Anne-Marie Hess, who is perhaps best known for writing the 2015 Lifetime movie Perfect High. Leslie Libman, who was behind the camera for Lifetime's Manson's Lost Girls, will do the same for this project. Libman has also directed episodes of tons of TV series such as NCIS, The Vampire Diaries, Zoo and many more. Asylum Entertainment, once known mostly as the company behind Sharknado and a million big budget knockoffs, will be the studio putting this together.
A mother of two, Britney Spears is indeed back on top of her game, with her ninth studio album Glory going on sale this Friday. She recently pranked Jimmy Kimmel, she'll be seen driving around with James Corden on The Late Late Show's Carpool Karaoke later this week, and she's confirmed to perform at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night. Not to mention the recent extension to her Vegas show. Now if only we could get her to cameo on this thing; Lifetime has hooked up with Jamie Lynn Spears before, so there's the network's in.
Born in Wales, Natasha Bassett got her first big break here in the U.S. (if you want to call it that) on the short-lived NBC comedy Camp. Her post-Hail Caesar big screen work will consist of Wayne Roberts' upcoming drama Katie Says Goodbye, Adam Gierasch's horror House by the Lake and Frederick Cipoletti's drama Desolate. She'll need to really work on the fanciest footwork she can muster as quickly as possible if she wants to look anything like this performance from May of this year.
No release date has been set just yet for Britney Jean, though we can expect to see it debut on Lifetime at some point in 2017. Production is set to begin in Vancouver starting on September 19. In the meantime, Lifetime is setting up some other potentially eye-catching projects, such as that JonBenet Ramsey movie and former Castle star Stana Katic's indie flick Sister Cities.
