Liesl Tommy is making sure Aretha Franklin’s story gets the R-E-S-P-E-C-T it deserves on the big screen. The Tony Award-nominated stage director has been tapped to helm “Respect” for MGM, Variety confirms. As previously announced, Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson will portray Franklin in the biopic. Also on board for the project is Oscar-winning “Thelma & Louise” scribe Callie Khouri, who will pen the script.
Best known for her iconic pipes and songs such as the film’s namesake, “Respect,” “Think,” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” Franklin was also a civil rights activist. She died in 2018. Hudson paid tribute to the legend in a medley of her songs at a Pre-Grammy Party in 2018.
After launching on the entertainment scene as a finalist on “American Idol,” Hudson won an Oscar in 2007 for her role in “Dreamgirls.” “Empire,” “Confirmation,” and “Chi-Raq” are among her more recent credits.
Tommy made history as the the first black female director to receive a best directing nomination at the Tony Awards. She received the nomination for “Eclipsed,” Danai Gurira’s story of five Liberian women set during the Second Liberian War. The production’s cast included Lupita Nyong’o. She’s set to re-team with the Oscar-winning “Black Panther” actress for “Born a Crime,” a Paramount Players’ adaptation of “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah’s autobiography.
“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,” said 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.”
Long-anticipated Franklin documentary “Amazing Grace” made its world premiere at DOC NYC in November. Shot in 1972 by Sydney Pollack (“Out of Africa”) over two nights at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in LA, the doc features Franklin performing with a choir. The doc is expected to hit theaters early this year but a release date hasn’t been announced.
