Taylor Swift is to direct her first feature film from a script she wrote.
The singer, 32, who has directed herself in music videos for songs including “The Man” and “Anti-Hero”, is helming a movie that will be produced by Searchlight Pictures, it was announced on Friday.
Its plot and any casting is under wraps, but Searchlight presidents David Greenbaum and Matthew Greenfield hailed the singer as a “once in a generation artist and storyteller” they are overjoyed to be working with.
They said in a statement announcing the project: “It is a genuine joy and privilege to collaborate with her as she embarks on this exciting and new creative journey.”
Watch video:
Swift had already hinted at the move, saying at the Toronto International Film Festival in September when asked if she had any plans to direct a feature film: “I’d like to keep taking baby steps forward and I’m at a place now where the next baby step is not a baby step.
“It would be committing to making a film and I feel like I would absolutely love for the right opportunity to arise, because I absolutely adore telling stories this way.”
Swift, who has been dating actor Joe Alwyn, 32, for six years, added she has always had a desire to tell “human stories about human emotion”.
She also said: “I never say never, but I can’t imagine myself filming an action sequence. If it happens one day, honestly, that’ll be funny character growth, but at this point, I could see it going in a more comedic, irreverent place.
“I don’t always see myself telling stories about extreme, guttural heartbreak at your most formative age that debilitates you emotionally for years and then you have to develop the scar tissue in order to move on with your life, and limp your way to your typewriter and write a novel about it. I think I’ve done that.”
Swift has told “The Hollywood Reporter” if she could trade places with anyone for one day, she would choose Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro.
Her work producing her “All Too Well: The Short Film’” which starred Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien, earned her an MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year.
Her solo directorial debut for “The Man” in 2020, also received a Best Direction award.