The Queen of Soul is currently working with Taylor Hackford, the producer of Ray, on a biopic of her life.
Apparently, 40 years ago a documentary was filmed while Aretha was recording her legendary gospel album Amazing Grace. Who knew? In 1972, the late Sydney Pollack and his film crew shot the two day recording session at LA’s New Temple Missionary Baptist Church. The release of this film is currently being blocked by Aretha. Hopefully they will work out a deal so that her fans can see this historic piece of work.
In the meantime, Aretha is working on her biopic. According to a recent Glamour magazine interview, the four act treatment is being fine tuned and the cast is being selected. She has narrowed the actresses in the running to play her down to three, Jennifer Hudson, Audra McDonald and Halle Berry. Denzel Washington is being considered for the role of her father, C.L. Franklin.
According to Franklin, “The story is going to be a chronological depiction of my advent from Detroit to New York as a young, aspiring singer… It’s going to be pretty straight-up, some things that are known, and some things that are not known”.
Looking forward to the release of both Aretha films.
