Celine Dion Is Preparing To Make Her Acting Debut With Outlander Favorite Sam Heughan

Celine Dion ashes music video

While Celine Dion has obviously had remarkable independent success in the music world, her legacy is also very much tied to the world of movies. After all, "My Heart Will Go On," the song written as the theme for Titanic, remains the biggest hit of her career, and even just a couple years ago she dipped her toe back back into cinema waters performing "Ashes" – the theme for Deadpool 2.

Now the beloved diva is set to take another step into the film universe, but this time around she'll be playing a very different role – which is to say that she will be playing a role. The French-Canadian singer is getting ready to make her acting debut.

Deadline has the scoop on this development, reporting that Celine Dion will soon be starring alongside Outlander's Sam Heughan and Priyanka Chopra Jonas in a new romantic drama temporarily titled Text For You. The movie is an adaptation of German author Sofie Cramer's novel SMS Fur Dich (which directly translates to "Text For You"), and was previously adapted by German director Karoline Herfurth in 2016.

Set to be directed by Grace Is Gone's Jim Strouse and written by Lauryn Kahn, the film will tell the story of a young woman who is still emotionally suffering following the tragic death of her fiance. In order to try and cope, she begins sending text messages to his old number – but then she discovers that the number has been reassigned to a man in her town who happens to be grieving a similar loss. Per the trade, there will be a heavy Celine Dion influence on the story, as the two characters find inspiration in her music (and presumably this means that Dion will be playing herself). And while it's not specifically stated in the trade report, we can assume that Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan will be playing the male and female leads.

Heughan, who is best known for playing Jamie Fraser on Outlander, has started to take on more feature projects recently, having starred alongside Vin Diesel in Bloodshot earlier this year. In addition to Text For You, his upcoming slate also includes two films that have already completed production: the action movie SAS: Red Notice and John Hay's An Unquiet Life, which will feature the actor playing Hollywood legend Paul Newman.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas has also continued to expand her big screen presence in recent years, with the most noteworthy upcoming projects being Lana Wachowski's The Matrix 4 and Robert Rodriguez's We Can Be Heroes. She is also set to collaborate with directors Joe and Anthony Russo on the developing miniseries Citadel.

Text For You is still in early development, and doesn't have a release date yet, but to check out what is coming in the immediate future, be sure to check out our 2021 release calendar.

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.