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*Somebody done let the cat out the bag. And that somebody is none other than record mogul Clive Davis.
OK, put it this way. He didn’t so much as let the cat out the bag as he made official what had been rumored for quite some time.
Saturday night at his highly anticipated pre-Grammy party, Davis introduced singer/actress Jennifer Hudson to sing a couple songs, and then told the audience that Hudson will be playing Aretha Franklin – who hand picked her – in an upcoming biopic about the life of the Queen of Soul, reports Deadline.
If you’ve been following this story, which has been around for several years, you already know that Hudson was being considered for the role after Halle Berry (Aretha’s first choice) had turned it down.
As far as Davis’ party is concerned, it began with performances by Barry Manilow, Luis Fonsi, Ben Platt, Alicia Keys, Khalid and Logic. Hudson was the last singer to perform and of course she threw down on Franklin’s classics “Think,” and “Respect.”
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Here’s more from Deadline:
Franklin’s musical legacy spans six decades, from your first recording as a young gospel singer, to her most recent release, A Brand New Me: Aretha Franklin with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. She has scored countless hits, including the reinvention of Otis Redding’s Respect as a feminist anthem that transformed her into an icon of the civil rights and women’s movements. She is one of the most honored artists in Grammy Award history, and is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the NAACP Hall of Fame, the Gospel music Hall of Fame and in 2005 was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama, who said of Franklin “Nobody embodies more fully the connection between the African-American spiritual, the blues, R&B, rock and roll–the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed into something full of beauty and vitality and hope.”
A start date for the production wasn’t announced, but we do the know the project will be released through MGM and “Straight Outta Compton‘s” Scott Bernstein and music producer Harvey Mason Jr., are set to produce.
Mason has previously worked with Franklin and also produced music for the film “Dreamgirls.” That’s also the same film that Hudson won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
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