We learned way back last January that Aretha Franklin had personally chosen Jennifer Hudson to play her in a new biopic. Now, in the wake of Franklin's death last August the rest of the main creative elements have come together, as stage veteran Liesl Tommy will direct the film, now known as Respect, working from a script by Callie Khouri.
The film will cover Franklin's life from her early days singing in her father's church choir and the subsequent journey to ionic musical superstar and civil rights activist, becoming the first woman inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame along the way. "The story of Aretha Franklin’s journey from child prodigy in Detroit to international supernova is rife with struggle and triumph, making her life one of the great American stories of all time," says Tommy. "As a filmmaker there is no greater gift than to be able to bring this transcendent chronicle of a woman’s fight for self-realization to visual life with the enormous talents of the soulful Jennifer Hudson, Callie Khouri, and our incredible producers."
Tommy's background includes work on plays such as Eclipsed and the live version of Frozen. She's also directed episodes of The Walking Dead, Insecure and Queen Sugar. At the same time as Respect, she's developed an adaptation of Daily Show host Trevor Noah's autobiography Born A Crime, which has Lupita Nyong'o attached.
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