Photo credit: Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS/Getty Images
The Queen of Soul has spoken.
Oscar and Grammy-winning actress and singer Jennifer Hudson will star as Aretha Franklin in an upcoming biopic about Franklin’s life. The news was announced by Clive Davis during his annual pre-Grammy party over the weekend, where Hudson performed a few songs including Franklin’s classics “Think” and “Respect.” Turns out, Hudson was handpicked by the Queen of Soul herself.
“When the biopic of the great Aretha Franklin is filmed next year, the artist anointed by Aretha herself to play her is the next performer,” said Davis while introducing Hudson to the audience at his pre-Grammy party. “Aretha personally told me that last week.”
Photo credit: Jeff Kravitz
Over the course of Franklin’s 60 year career, she has become the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fall, one of the most honored artists in Grammy Award history, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
According to E News, “Franklin said the biopic would be a ‘pretty straight-up’ account of her life—i.e., ‘a chronological depiction of my advent from Detroit to New York as a young, aspiring singer.’ While fans ‘already know’ some details,’ it would also show ‘other things that are not known.'”
The project, which has been in the works for seven years, does not have a release date yet.