After Freddie Mercury, Elton John or recently Elvis Presley, it is up to Whitney Houston to be entitled to her biopic on the big screen, distributed by Sony Pictures which has just published a first trailer.
Entitled
I Wanna Dance With Somebody,
in reference to her unforgettable hit, the film promises to portray "the Whitney you never knew", a bold statement to say the least, given the number of reports and documentaries that have traced the life of the singer following her untimely death in 2012.
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This presumably emotional journey traces the diva's musical career, highlighting some of the most memorable moments, like her 1991 Super Bowl performance and the
1999
It's Not Right But It's OK music video.
We also relive the cult interview where the superstar has to justify himself about his music to a journalist who claims that some people do not find it “black enough”.
Note to which she replies curtly: “I don't know how to sing 'black', and I don't know how to sing 'white' either.
I know how to sing".
Portrayed by Naomi Ackie (
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker
;
Master of None
) in the lead role, this biopic also stars Ashton Sanders (as Bobby Brown, the singer's husband), Tamara Tunie (Cissy Houston), Clarke Peters (John Houston) and Nafessa Williams (Robyn Crawford).
Comedian Stanley Tucci, unrecognizable in the trailer, plays Clive Davis, the founder of Arista Records who is credited with discovering the singer at a New York nightclub in the early 1980s. -to hear the greatest voice of his generation,” he says off-screen at the end of this two-minute trailer.
On video, the Whitney
trailer
It is this same Clive Davis, now 90 years old, who produced the feature film, directed by Kasi Lemmons and written by Anthony McCarten (
Bohemian Rhapsody
).
Most of the trailer resonates with the sound of the title from which the film takes its name.
Houston is portrayed as a self-assured, confident, and beautiful woman.
The trailer doesn't appear to show the more controversial elements of his life, most notably his drug addiction.
The singer indeed fatally drowned in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton on February 11, 2012, at the age of 48.
Heart disease and cocaine use were cited as contributing factors in his death.
On video, when actresses are biopic heroines
According to other sources, the singer was also bisexual.
In 2019, her longtime confidante Robyn Crawford confirmed that she and the singer had a romantic relationship in the '80s. Whether or not
I Wanna Dance With Somebody
will address any of that remains to be seen.
The theatrical release is scheduled for December 21.
