Here’s the first official footage of the Whitney Houston biopic. Sony Pictures has released the first official trailer of “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”, with “Master of None” actress Naomi Ackie stepping into the shoes of the late R&B and pop icon.
The trailer opens with the discovery of the young talent from New Jersey by Clive Davis, who is portrayed by Stanley Tucci. “My dream? Sing what I want to sing, be how I want to be,” Ackie’s Houston says in the trailer. “Reach as big an audience as I can.”
The trailer shows her rise to fame and depicts some of Houston’s most memorable moments in her life, including her wedding and her performance at Super Bowl XXV, while promising to show “the Whitney you never knew.”
At one point in the video, Houston is told a common criticism is that her music “isn’t black enough.” Responding to that, she says, “I don’t know how to sing black, and I don’t know how to sing white either. I know how to sing.”
From the script by “Bohemian Rhapsody” screenwriter Anthony McCarten, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” is a powerful and triumphant celebration of the incomparable Whitney Houston. The film is a no-holds-barred portrait of the complex and multifaceted woman behind The Voice.
From New Jersey choir girl to one of the best-selling and most awarded recording artists of all time, audiences are taken on an inspirational, poignant-and so emotional-journey through Houston’s trailblazing life and career, with show-stopping performances and a soundtrack of the icon’s most beloved hits as you’ve never heard them before.
Kasi Lemmons directs the pic, while Houston’s sister Pat Houston produces the feature, along with Davis, McCarten, Larry Mestel, Denis O’Sullivan, Jeff Kalligheri, Matt Jackson, Molly Smith, Trent Luckinbill, Thad Luckinbill, Matt Salloway and Christina Papagjika.
Ackie previously shared that she believed portraying Houston onscreen would be an “impossible thing to achieve” as an actress. “But many people told me the same thing: If I wasn’t scared and nervous, they’d think something was wrong with me,” she told PEOPLE.
“The biggest challenge was letting my fear of the magnitude of this task take a back seat. Nothing good comes from sitting in fear for too long,” she added. “Fans can expect to see her life like we see are our own. Ups and downs, triumphs and disappointments, all of it mixing together to make up a life.”
“I Wanna Dance with Somebody” is set to open in theaters nationwide on December 21.
