WAIT, WHO IS THIS MOVIE ABOUT?

In 1996 Cassidy, a performer from Washington, D.C., died from melanoma. She was 33, with a thin discography that included just one unreleased studio album. But critical praise was impressive and the posthumous collection Songbird eventually hit #1 in the UK based on a performance of ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’.

(The chart-topping success was almost a YouTube precursor, as the video that ran to massive popularity on Top of the Pops 2 was a fan-shot bootleg, rather than a professional production.)

The film adaptation was probably inevitable, but the fact that it could be a theatrical release instead of a Lifetime Movie Network affair is actually interesting. If producers Amy Redford, Irwin Shapiro and Rick Singer don’t go the obvious route and hire Emmy Rossum (who is way too young, anyway) this could turn into a Selena-like road to stardom for some relative unknown.

This flick won’t have the sympathy cache of Selena — dying of melanoma is bad, but it can’t beat being killed by the president of your fan club — nor does it have the same cultural cache. But if this actually hits screens I’d bet on it swaying large popularity in the same way Jeremy expects P.S. I Love You to become the Hallmark event of the winter.