(Misty Copeland by Gregg Delman)
Deadline reports,
New Line Cinema has optioned the inspirational true story of ballet prodigy Misty Copeland, who fought against the odds to become the only the second African-American female soloist to dance with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre. Offspring Entertainment’s Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot alongside Phil Sandhaus will produce the feature film adapted from Copeland’s bestselling memoir Life In Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, which Stephanie Allain and Lenore Kletter are set to script.
The film will be based on Misty Copeland’s New York Times bestelling autobiography with Charisse Jones, Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina. The book chronicles Copeland’s rise through adversity. She began training in ballet at the age of 13 through lessons at the Boys & Girls club while living in a welfare hotel with her mother and siblings to living with a sponsor family while attending a professional dance school. In 1998, at the age of 15, Misty Copeland was involved in a custody controversy which quickly spread through American media. Copeland filed a petition for emancipation against her mother, and the situation was resolved after she dropped the suit. The upcoming film will focus on this period in her life and Copeland will serve as a consultant on the film.