Michelle Williams is in early talks to take on the role of rock icon Janis Joplin in a new biopic directed by Sean Durkin, the director of Martha Marcy May Marlene.

The film, titled Janis, is based the singer’s sister Laura Joplin’s book Love, Janis, which uses the singer’s letters to track her life from the coffee house roots of her career through to Woodstock, when she struggled with alcohol and drug addiction to cope with her sudden celebrity.

She died in 1970 aged 27 from a heroin overdose; a fourth album was released posthumously. Key hits included Piece of My Heart, Me and Bobby McGee, Get It While You Can, Move Over and Cry Baby.

Williams’s next role is in another musical film called The Greatest Showman, a PT Barnum biopic starring Hugh Jackman. She’s mooted for a supporting actress nomination for her role alongside Casey Affleck in Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester By the Sea, which is released in the US in November.

A rival Joplin biopic is now stuck in litigation following a lawsuit filed against its writer. Get It While You Can focuses on a single day in Joplin’s life and had been set to star Amy Adams, with Jean-Marc Vallée directing.