Whitney Houston is receiving a biopic from Sony/TriStar and has selected BAFTA winning actress Naomi Ackie to play the iconic singer. Entitled, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, the movie will be coming from The Photograph director Stella Meghie with the Houston estate approved screenplay written by Anthony McCarten. The film will be produced under McCarten’s banner, Muse of Fire Productions, alongside Primary Wave Music’s Larry Mestel, Compelling Pictures’ Dennis O’Sullivan and Jeff Kalligheri, Pat Houston from the Houston estate, and Clive Davis.
I Wanna Dance with Somebody will be the first biopic on the late singer to be approved by the Houston estate, which allows all of Houston’s hits to be reproduced for the film. Angela Basset directed Lifetime’s 2015 biopic Whitney, which wasn’t approved by the Houston estate, ultimately restricting reproduction of any hit singles from the singers repertoire for the film.
On the casting of Ackie, Meghie stated in a Deadline article, “We spent the better part of the last year in an exhaustive search for an actress who could embody Whitney Houston, Naomi Ackie impressed us at every stage of the process. I was moved by her ability to capture the stage presence of a global icon while bringing humanity to her interior life.”
Naomi Ackie is a British actress known for her roles in Lady Macbeth and Netflix’s The End of the F*cking World, for which she won a BAFTA award. Currently the actress can be seen in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and the fourth film in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology series, Education. Ackee has also landed a leading role in the upcoming Will Poulter and Johnny Flynn musical The Score.
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