BAFTA winner and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Actress Naomi Ackie has taken on the role of Whitney Houston in Sony / TriStar’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody biography, directed by Stella Meghie.
“We spent most of the last year looking for an actress who could portray 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 and at the same time bring humanity into its inner workings, ”Meghie said in a statement.
The picture, taken with the blessing of the Houston estate, was written by Oscar nominee Anthony McCarten.
The deadline first brought news of the project run by McCarten’s Muse of Fire Productions, Pat Houston (the 2018 Kevin Macdonald documentary Whitney) on behalf of the Houston Estate, commissioned by Grammy-winning music producer Clive Davis and Larry Mestel Produced by Primary Wave Musik and Denis O’Sullivan (Bohemian Rhapsody) and Jeff Kalligheri (Submergence), who also fund through Compelling Pictures. Primary Wave Music is a partner of the Whitney Houston Estate. The key to this Houston project is that the property signed the script, which allows the film to reproduce all of the Houston hits. This was key to getting Bohemian Rhapsody off the ground. Lifetime’s Whitney TV movie, directed by Angela Bassett, did not have the approval of the Houston estate, and so could not reproduce all of the hit singles in the multi-award-winning singer’s canon.
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Ackie won a BAFTA for her role as ‘Bonnie’ on the second series of Netflix’s cult series The End Of The F *** ing World. For her appearance as “Anna” in Lady Macbeth she won a British Independent Film Award for “Most Promising Newcomer” in 2017. Last year she played ‘Jannah’ in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the final installment in the Skywalker saga, and she recently appeared in Education, part four of Steve McQueen’s acclaimed anthology, Small Ax. She will next star in the heist musical The Score with Will Poulter and Johnny Flynn.
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