Fox Searchlight has acquired the life rights to Britain’s Got Talent sensation Susan Boyle along with rights to the UK musical I Dreamed A Dream that’s based on her story. The plan is to combine the two to develop a re-imagined filmed version of the musical. Lucas Webb, who pursued the project for Searchlight out of London, tells me the aspiration is to do “a sensitive and honest biopic infused with music.” It’s early stages and no director or screenwriter has been attached, but the project is “front and center,” says Webb.

Boyle’s Britain’s Got Talent audition in 2009, singing the Les Misérables lament I Dreamed A Dream, catapulted her to overnight Internet stardom. Her first album that same year became the best-selling UK debut record of all time. A jukebox musical, I Dreamed A Dream is produced by Michael Harrison and spans Boyle’s life from infancy in a working class town in northern Scotland through to how she learned to deal with the onset of sudden international fame. I Dreamed A Dream started its regional UK tour in March this year to strong reviews and will transfer to Australia next year before heading to the West End.