Michelle Williams is set to play Janis Joplin in new biopic

Academy award-winner Michelle Williams is set to take on the role of iconic blues singer Janis Joplin

Whether you know her as Jen from Dawson’s Creek, Alma in Brokeback Mountain or Marilyn from My Week with Marilyn, there’s no denying that Michelle Williams in one talented actress.

Which is why Janis Joplin fans can breath a sigh of relief at the news that it’s Michelle Williams who is set to be entrusted with the role in Sean Durkin’s upcoming biopic about the sixties blues singer. Taking on a docu-drama style, the film will be based on Laura Joplin’s correspondence-based memoir, Love, Janis, about her famous sister.

Simply titled Janis, the biopic will tell the story of the singers life through letters to her sister, Laura, which document how she went from performing in coffee houses to headlining at Woodstock at the height of her career.

But alongside her success, the biopic will also address the darker moments of Joplin's career when the singer had to resort to drugs and alcohol to cope with the pressure of her fame. Focusing on the last six months of her life, Janis will reveal the tragedy behind the singer’s death from a heroin overdose in 1970, at the age of just 27.

Despite her untimely death, Janis managed to release three albums over the course of her career and became the voice of a generation. Her fourth album, Pearl, which was released posthumously, was so popular that it topped the charts, holding the number one spot on the Billboard 200 for nine weeks and going quadruple platinum. Today, countless musicians still cite Janis as a source of their inspiration, including Florence Welch from Florence and the Machine.

It’s been a successful year for Michelle Williams who recently won a Tony Award for her part in Broadway show Blackbird. She’s now being tipped for a best supporting actress Oscar for her part in Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea, so it’s fair to say we can expect a pretty epic performance from her as Janis Joplin.