Yaya DaCosta won over Whitney Houston biopic director Angela Bassett to portray the legendary diva in a film tentatively titled, I will Always Love You: The Whitney Houston Story set to air on Lifetime in 2015.
The top-model finalist has made several forays into acting; one of her most notable being her acclaimed portrayal of the feisty “Carol Hammie” in Lee Daniels’ The Butler.
Angela Bassett, who starred with Houston in 1995’s “Waiting to Exhale,” stated that she holds such a high regard for Houston that she feels “a responsibility” in telling the icon’s story according to the Huffington Post. Bassett will work with the same writer who brought us Betty and Coretta, a Lifetime movie she starred in alongside Mary J. Blige, chronicling the friendship between Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz.
This is not the first time the Lifetime network has connected with the Houston family. “Houstons: On our Own” provided a glimpse into the lives of the pop superstar’s family as they struggled to cope with Houston’s untimely death, which on aired on the network in late 2012. The show seemed to cause more strain within the Houston/Brown family and was met with mixed reviews, so after a lukewarm first season, the show ended.
The tensions between Lifetime and the Houstons have only escalated as a result of this movie announcement. TMZ reported that the family hates that Lifetime attempts to contain Whitney Houston on the small screen–they contend she is much more worthy of a big-screen movie. The family may file a lawsuit to block production, but as of now, the movie is on.
Will you be watching?
