Actor: Michelle Williams
Film: The Challenger 
The story of Christa McAuliffe is regrettably a sad one. In 1985 McAuliffe, a teacher from New Hampshire, USA, won a competition against 11,000 other applicants to be part of the NASA Teacher in Space Project, becoming the first educator to become an astronaut. Tragically the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart just 73 seconds after launch, killing McAuliffe and her six crew members.
The AV Club reports that Michelle Williams will play the late teacher in a new film, The Challenger, which is due to start production in spring 2019, and will look at McAuliffe’s life, the year she spent training for her space mission and her death. 

Actor: Zendaya
Film: A White Lie
The film, which Zendaya not only stars in but is producing too, is based on Karin Tanabe’s novel The Gilded Years. It tells the true story of Anita Hemmings, a light-skinned, African-American woman who pretended to be white so she could attend Vassar University in the 1890s, and became the first black woman to graduate there with a diploma.
Reese Witherspoon will be producing alongside the singer, but no timescales have been released on when the film will be coming to cinemas. 

Actor: Cynthia Erivo
Film: Harriet
Harriet is set to be a powerful biopic about Harriet Tubman, the famous abolitionist who escaped slavery in 1849 and became an integral part of the Underground Railroad system, eventually freeing hundreds of slaves using public transport. Erivo will star in the picture alongside Janelle Monáe. 

Actor: Kristen Stewart
Film: Against All Enemies, release date TBC
Kristen Stewart has been cast as American actor and activist Jean Seberg, who spent half her life in France and became heavily associated with French New Wave cinema. The movement of filmmakers of the late Fifties and early Sixties was seen as a rejection of the literary period pieces being made at that time, in favour of shining a spotlight on current social issues.

Seberg appeared in multiple French New Wave films, including Bonjour Tristesse and Breathless and at one point was hailed ‘the best actress in Europe’.

Against All Enemies is said to start shooting this summer and will be a political thriller. Deadline reports that the story is inspired by true events surrounding Seberg’s illegal targeting by an FBI surveillance program.

Actor: Julianne Moore

Film: My Life on the Road, release date TBC

Moore will star as the legendary feminist activist in upcoming biopic My Life on the Road, based on Steinem’s memoir of the same name. Julie Taymor – who previously directed Salma Hayek in Kahlo biopic Frida, and also helmed the original Broadway production of The Lion King – is set to direct, Deadline reports.

Steinem’s autobiography tells the story of her journey to becoming one of the most prominent feminist activists in the world, from her early years as a journalist and political campaigner to her world travels and involvement in international protest movements. As well as being an Oscar-winning actress, Moore seems a good fit for the role politically: she’s a staunch liberal, pro-choice advocate and outspoken critic of gun laws in the US. 

Actor: Felicity Jones

Film: On The Basis Of Sex, release date TBC.

Felicity Jones is set to star as legendary US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in On the Basis of Sex, a biopic slated to start shooting in September 2017.

Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, and was the second female justice after Sandra Day O’Connor. The film has been in development since 2015, with Natalie Portman previously pegged for the role of Ginsburg.

Deadline reports that the film will follow “the travels of Ginsburg as she faced numerous obstacles to her fight for equal rights throughout her career”. We’ll be watching.

Actor: Michelle Williams

Film: Janis, release date TBC

Michelle Williams will star as iconic sixties singer Janis Joplin in an upcoming biopic directed by Sean Durkin, who also helmed Martha Marcy May Marlene.

The film, which has been in the works for a whopping 21 years, is being produced in collaboration with the Joplin family. As a result, it has the rights to 24 of the late musician’s most loved songs, including Mercedes Benz and Me and Bobby McGee.

Joplin began her career singing in coffee shops and went onto become one of the biggest female rock stars of the sixties. Known for her mixture of vulnerability and charisma, she died from an accidental heroin overdose in 1970.

Actor: Natalie Portman

Film: Jackie (2016)

Portman was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar in 2017 for her turn as Jackie Kennedy. The biopic follows the former First Lady in the days following the assassination of her husband, President John F Kennedy, in 1963.

“It’s a portrait of a woman and a particular moment in her life that affected history,” Portman told the Scotsman after the film’s release, adding: “The central story of this film is how she was able to grab hold of the narrative and really control it, which is remarkable and very ahead of her time.”

Actor: Katie Holmes

Film: The Kennedys (TV mini-series, 2011)

Slightly less critically acclaimed than Jackie was Katie Holmes’ interpretation of Kennedy in TV miniseries The Kennedys. Historians questioned whether the show was accurate in how it depicted the First Family – but that didn’t stop a second series, The Kennedys: Beyond Camelot, being aired in April 2017.  

Actor: Meryl Streep

Film: The Iron Lady (2011)

If anyone was up to the job of playing Britain’s most controversial prime minister, it was Meryl. She adopted a cut-glass English accent and unsettling helmet hair to play Thatcher in this acclaimed biopic.  

Actor: Michelle Williams

Film: My Week With Marilyn (2011)

Williams won a Golden Globe and an Independent Spirit Award for her turn as Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn, which focuses on the relationship between the legendary movie star and aspiring filmmaker Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne). 

Actor: Andrea Riseborough

Film: W.E. (2011)

Andrea Riseborough played Wallis Simpson, the American divorcee for whom King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1936, in this Madonna-directed period drama. The film received notably mixed reviews – but at least Riseborough got to wear some fabulous Thirties suits. 

Actor: Alison Pill

Film: Midnight In Paris (2011)

Actor: Kristen Stewart

Film: The Runaways (2010)

Actor: Helena Bonham Carter

Film: The King's Speech (2010)

Actor: Lucy Gordon

Film: Gainsbourg (2010)

Actor: Audrey Tautou

Film: Coco Before Chanel (2009)

Actor: Hilary Swank

Film: Amelia (2009)

Actor: Natalie Portman

Film: The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

Actor: Beyonce

Film: Cadillac Records (2008)

Actor: Anne Hathaway

Film: Becoming Jane (2007)

Actor: Cate Blanchett

Film: Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

Actor: Marion Cotillard

Film: La Vie En Rose (2007)

Actor: Helen Mirren

Film: The Queen (2006)

Actor: Renée Zellweger

Film: Miss Potter (2006)

Actor: Reese Witherspoon

Film: Walk The Line (2005)

Actor: Catherine Keener

Film: Capote (2005)

Actor: Gretchen Mol

Film: The Notorious Bettie Page (2005)

Actor: Gwyneth Paltrow

Film: Sylvia (2003)

Actor: Amber Rose Sealey

Film: Bertie and Elizabeth TV series (2002)

Actor: Nicole Kidman

Film: The Hours (2002)

Actor: Judi Dench

Film: Iris (2001)

Actor: Jennifer Love Hewitt

Film: The Audrey Hepburn Story (TV movie, 2000)

Actor: Angelina Jolie

Film: Gia (TV movie, 1998)

Actor: Jennifer Lopez

Film: Selena (1997)

Actor: Madonna

Film: Evita (1996)

Actor:: Mira Sorvino

Film: Norma, Jean & Marilyn (TV movie, 1996)

Actor: Angela Bassett (seen here alongside Laurence Fishburne as Ike Turner)

Film: What's Love Got To Do With It? (1993)

Actor: Susan Griffiths

Film: Marilyn and Me (TV movie, 1991)

Actor: Chloe Webb

Film: Sid And Nancy (1986)

Actor: Meryl Streep

Film: Out Of Africa (1985)

Actor: Faye Dunaway

Film: Mommie Dearest (1981)

Actor: Sissy Spacek

Film: Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)

Actor: Loni Anderson

Film: The Jayne Mansfield Story (TV movie, 1980)

Actor: Faye Dunaway

Film: Bonnie And Clyde (1967)

Actor: Elizabeth Taylor

Film: Cleopatra (1963)