{"id":806693,"date":"2020-04-22T16:06:02","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T22:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=988535"},"modified":"2020-04-22T16:06:02","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T22:06:02","slug":"whitney-houston-biopic-in-the-works-with-estate-approval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/whitney-houston-biopic-in-the-works-with-estate-approval\/","title":{"rendered":"Whitney Houston Biopic In the Works With Estate Approval"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/whitney-houston-biopic.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/whitney-houston\/\" id=\"auto-tag_whitney-houston\" data-tag=\"whitney-houston\">Whitney Houston<\/a> estate is moving forward with an official biopic about the late singer tentatively titled <i>I Wanna Dance With Somebody<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In a statement, producers described the film as \u201ca joyous, emotional and heart-breaking celebration of the life and music of the greatest female R&amp;B pop vocalist of all time, tracking her journey from obscurity to musical superstardom. While being very frank about the price that super-stardom exacted, it will be both the rich and complex saga of the search for the perfect marriage between song and singer and audience, and at the same time the moving tale of a simple Jersey girl trying to find her way back home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Anthony McCarten will write a screenplay for the film on spec. McCarten has earned four Oscar nominations, and he\u2019s particularly seasoned in the world of biopics with <i>The Theory of Everything<\/i>, <i>Bohemian Rhapsody<\/i>, <i>The Darkest Hour <\/i>and <i>The Two Popes<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cWe are incredibly lucky to have the support and input of many of the key people who knew Whitney the best and who were there at the time, in the making of this film,\u201d McCarten said in a statement. \u201cI am working closely with all of them, to authentically tell the extraordinary story of a peerless talent, taken from us too soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <!-- .l-article-content__pull--left --> <\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">A director for the film has yet to be officially announced, though a press release notes that Stella Meghie is in \u201cadvanced talks\u201d to helm the film. Meghie\u2019s most recent movie was the romantic drama <i>The Photograph, <\/i>while past efforts include <i>Jean of the Joneses <\/i>and <i>The Weekend<\/i>, plus episodes of <i>Grown-ish <\/i>and <i>The First Wives Club<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Houston\u2019s estate, represented by its executor and Houston\u2019s sister-in-law, Pat Houston, will produce the film alongside Houston\u2019s longtime mentor and label boss, Clive Davis. Larry Mestel, whose Primary Wave Music struck a publishing partnership with the Houston estate in 2019, will also produce.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cFrom all my personal and professional experience with Whitney from her late teenage years to her tragic premature death, I know the full Whitney Houston story has not yet been told,\u201d Davis said in a statement. \u201cI am so glad that Anthony McCarten has committed to a no-holds-barred, musically rich screenplay that finally reveals the whole Whitney whose vocal genius deeply affected the world while she fiercely battled the demons that were to be her undoing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Pat Houston added, \u201cWhitney\u2019s legacy deserves only the best that can be given. I stand with the hearts of these partners being the chosen ones to produce a film that\u2019s uplifting and inspiring to all that loved her, giving you a reason to continue to celebrate The Voice that we all fell in love with and will cherish forever!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">News of the official Houston biopic comes several years after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/tv\/tv-news\/10-most-hell-to-the-yes-moments-in-lifetimes-whitney-55828\/\">Lifetime aired an unauthorized film<\/a> about the singer\u2019s life with Angela Bassett in the starring role. The film <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/tv\/tv-news\/whitney-houstons-family-slams-lifetime-angela-bassett-over-unauthorized-biopic-189795\/\">earned the ire<\/a> of the Houston estate, with Pat Houston saying at the time, \u201cIf you watch this movie, watch it knowing that Lifetime is notorious for making bad biopics of deceased celebrities and brace yourself for the worst.\u201d A separate documentary directed by Nick Broomfield titled&nbsp;<em>Whitney: Can I Be Me&nbsp;<\/em>was released in 2017.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pmc-contextual-player\">\n<h3> Popular on Rolling Stone <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/whitney-houston-biopic-movie-details-988535\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Whitney Houston estate is moving forward with an official biopic about the late singer tentatively titled I Wanna Dance With Somebody. In a statement, producers described the film as \u201ca joyous, emotional and heart-breaking celebration of the life and music of the greatest female R&amp;B pop vocalist of all time, tracking her journey from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-806693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-13 07:10:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}