ADVERTISEMENT Two years after her death, a biopic on legendary Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor is reportedly in development.
According to Variety, the film will be directed by Josephine Decker, known for the 2020 feature Shirley, based on the life of novelist Shirley Jackson.
Decker will work from a script by Irish writer Stacey Gregg. Helming the project is Irish production company ie: entertainment, which already executive produced the 2022 Sinéad O’Connor documentary Nothing Compares.
The upcoming film has reportedly been in the works since the release of the critically acclaimed documentary, on which the singer had collaborated.
Other production companies involved in the biopic include Oscar-winning See-Saw Films, known for The King’s Speech, Shame, Lion and The Power of the Dog, as well as Nine Daughters, which produced Lady Macbeth and God’s Creatures.
Both companies previously collaborated on Francis Lee’s 2020 period drama Ammonite.
The film is expected to focus on O’Connor’s early life and career. It will tell the story “of how one young woman from Dublin took on the world, examining how her global fame may have been built on her talent, but her name became synonymous with her efforts to draw attention to the crimes committed by the Catholic Church and the Irish state.”
Sinéad O’Connor died in 2023 at age 56. The biggest commercial success of her four-decade career remained her 1990 album ‘I’ Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got’, which featured her hit cover of Prince’s song ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’.
O’Connor, who self-identified as a “protest singer”, intertwined her music and activism throughout her life. She most vehemently advocated against child abuse in the Catholic Church.
During a 1992 performance on US comedy show Saturday Night Live, she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II, a gesture that drew wide condemnation.
In 2018, she converted to Islam and took the name Shuhada’ Sadaqat, while continuing to perform under her birth name. The Irish musician released her memoir “Rememberings” in 2021, just two years before her death.
Her legacy was a subject of controversy during the 2024 US presidential campaign, when her estate asked Donald Trump to stop using ‘Nothing Compares to U’ at his political rallies.
“Throughout her life, it is well known that Sinéad O’Connor lived by a fierce moral code defined by honesty, kindness, fairness, and decency towards her fellow human beings,” O’Connor’s estate and her label Chrysalis Records said in a statement at the time.
“As the guardians of her legacy, we demand that Donald Trump, and his associates desist from using her music immediately.”
