The year’s glitziest music biopic has arrived on the dance floor. After Elton John’s Rocketman, Aretha Franklin’s Respect, and, well, Elvis Presley’s Elvis, Whitney Houston is the next music legend who will be getting the biopic treatment. I Wanna Dance With Somebody will be released this winter, and just unveiled the first look at Naomie Ackie as the legend herself, breaking out hits like “How Will I Know” and, naturally, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.”
Ackie, sporting several dazzling, iconic costumes—including that iconic Super Bowl white tracksuit—makes for a perfect Whitney Houston. But there’s another star who’s completely unrecognizable in this first look: Stanley Tucci. His appearance in the trailer raises an existential question: Did you ever think that Tucci could be unattractive? In a world first, the role he’ll play in this biopic requires him to wear old age makeup and gruff suits that make him look, well, not as alluring as usual.
Still, he’s our guy! He’ll play Clive Davis, the music business head credited with helping Whitney rise to fame in her early days. We get a glimpse of that in the trailer, in which Clive shepherds Whitney onto the greatest stages in the world—including the Super Bowl.
But it is, of course, Whitney’s voice that carries her across the world, moving mountains with her greatest hits. Hearing her voice echoing over the trailer is an instant serotonin boost. Then, there’s also the recreated live performances, the spectacle of her outfits, and even little moments of joy shared with her family as her songs sweep the world off its feet.
Most Whitney fans are excited—especially for those looks!—but there’s a warranted hesitation when it comes to this new biopic. Early on in the trailer, there’s one big red flag: “From the writers of Bohemian Rhapsody.” That’s not exactly promising. Anthony McCarten, a New Zealand writer who also penned scripts like The Theory of Everything and The Two Popes is back on board for I Wanna Dance With Somebody.
McCarten’s screenplay for the Freddie Mercury biopic was heavily criticized for playing fast and loose with historical facts surrounding the Queen singer’s AIDS diagnosis in order to create a crass, emotionally manipulative “movie moment” surrounding the famous Live AID performance. And that was after the film spent its running time demonizing Mercury’s homosexuality and embrace of gay culture as a gateway drug that almost ruined his and the band’s career. Not exactly the kind of nuance or sensitivity one might think a Whitney Houston biopic, given all that she struggled with, might require.
“FROM THE WRITER OF BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY???” one user shared on Twitter. “WHITNEY GET BEHIND ME!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Yikes. At least the director, Kasi Lemmons, delivers a reason to feel more confident about how the film might turn out. She’s worked on films like Harriet and Eve’s Bayou. Alongside Ackie and Tucci, Tamara Tunie will star as Houston’s mother Cissy, Ashton Sanders will star as Bobby Brown, and Clarke Peters will star as father John Houston.
I Wanna Dance With Somebody will premiere in theaters on Dec. 21.
