Whitney Houston Biopic Movie The Greatest Love of All by Naomi Ackie

Описание: Whitney’s big break comes at the Sweetwaters nightclub, when her mother Cissy Houston spots producer Clive Davis. She feigns sickness, so Whitney opens with "The Greatest Love of All". Davis immediately signs her to Arista Records.

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody is the 2022 American biographical musical drama film directed by Kasi Lemmons, from a screenplay by Anthony McCarten, based on the life and career of American pop icon and actress Whitney Houston. The film stars Naomi Ackie as Houston with Stanley Tucci, Ashton Sanders, Tamara Tunie, Nafessa Williams, and Clarke Peters in supporting roles.

An authorized biopic on Houston's life was announced in early 2020, with Ackie cast in the lead role that December, and the rest of the cast signing on later the next year. Produced on a $45 million budget, filming took place in Massachusetts and New Jersey from August to December 2021.

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody was released in the United States on December 23, 2022, by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise going to Ackie's performance and criticisms for the film's hewing to music biopic conventions. The movie grossed $59.8 million.

ew.com: Stanley Tucci on his love of Whitney Houston and being moved by Naomi Ackie's performance. "I got chills every time she did a take," the I Wanna Dance with Somebody co-star says of Ackie, who plays the late singer. By Lester Fabian Brathwaite

Producer and icon-maker Clive Davis has had his hand in the careers of so many major recording artists of the 20th century — from Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin to Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel — it's a wonder he hasn't had his own biopic yet.

And then, of course, there's Whitney Houston, who Davis signed to his label Arista Records when she was just 19. In the new biopic Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, Stanley Tucci plays Davis to Naomi Ackie's Whitney.

By his own admission, Tucci didn't know much about the late singer's personal life and struggles going into the project, except that he "loved her."

"I loved watching her, I loved listening to her," Tucci tells EW in the video above. "And her songs became a really big part of our lives without even knowing it. You don't even have to go buy a Whitney Houston album. It's there all around you. And she changed the way, like Clive did, the way we hear music."

The Oscar-nominated actor was also floored by Ackie's performance, saying he "got chills every time she did a take."

"It's Whitney's voice, obviously. But the way Naomi did it, you'd swear to God, she was singing it," Tucci said of Ackie. "It was very, very moving."