Precious and Paperboy director Lee Daniels is in talks to direct the long-gestating Janis Joplin biopic, which has Oscar nominee Amy Adams attached to star as the iconic 60s singer.

Daniels is the latest film-maker to consider taking on a film about Joplin, following interest from Fernando Meirelles, Catherine Hardwicke and Wayne's World director Penelope Spheeris. Renée Zellweger, Zooey Deschanel and rock diva Pink have all been attached to play the singer, who died of a heroin overdose in 1970 after becoming one of the best known faces of the counterculture and performing at Woodstock.

Originally the frontwoman for the blues rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, Joplin left the group in late 1968 to embark on an initially ill-received solo career. She went on to release two acclaimed albums, I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (1969) and Pearl (1971), the latter issued posthumously. Joplin's version of her erstwhile lover Kris Kristofferson's song Me and Bobby McGee reached No 1 in the United States on 20 March 1971.

Previous aborted attempts at a Joplin biopic were titled The Gospel According to Janis and Piece of My Heart. Hollywood has been trying to bring the singer's story to the big screen, in one form or another, since at least 2003, so it may be that producers of the latest version are reluctant to choose a title until the cameras roll. That is due to happen in early 2013, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Spheeris's take dealt with the period in Joplin's life from her move to California at the age of 19 until her death eight years later, in 1970. The plot was due to follow a Rolling Stone journalist, David Dalton, as he joined Joplin on tour to write a cover story comparing her to Judy Garland.