A Whitney Houston biopic is in the works

Film will be a 'joyous, emotional and heart-breaking celebration' of Houston’s life and the price she paid for stardom

LOS ANGELES: Whitney Houston is headed back to the big screen in a feature film about the singer’s life that took her to the heights of fame but ended in drug addiction and tragedy.

Taking its title from one of Houston’s biggest hits - I Wanna Dance with Somebody - the film has the backing of the singer’s estate and her longtime record producer and mentor Clive Davis, producers said on Wednesday.

PHOTO: ROLLING STONE

They described the film as a “joyous, emotional and heart-breaking celebration” of Houston’s life and music, but added that it would also be “very frank about the price that super-stardom exacted.”

Houston, 48, whose hits included, I Will Always Love You and Saving All My Love for You, drowned in her bathtub at a Beverly Hills hotel in 2012 on the eve of the Grammy Awards after taking cocaine. She had a well-chronicled and years-long battle with drug addiction.

Houston co-starred in the 1992 romantic thriller The Bodyguard and made several other movies. Since her death, the six-time Grammy winner has been the subject of several documentaries but the feature film is the first approved version of her life.

PHOTO: ROLLING STONE

Bohemian Rhapsody writer Anthony McCarten has penned the screenplay and indie filmmaker Stella Meghie is in advanced talks to direct, producers said in a statement.

No casting or release date was announced.

Musical biopics have surged in popularity in the past two years thanks to the success of Bohemian Rhapsody - the story of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury which won four Oscars in 2019 - and Elton John’s rise to fame in Rocketman.

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