Whitney Houstonโs life story is headed to the big screen in a feature film about the singerโs life that took her to the heights of fame but ended in drug addiction and tragedy.
Taking its title from one of Houstonโs biggest hits โ โI Wanna Dance with Somebodyโ โ the film has the backing of the singerโs estate and her longtime record producer and mentor Clive Davis, producers said on Wednesday.
โFrom all my personal and professional experience with Whitney from her late teenage years to her tragic premature death, I know the full Whitney Houston story has not yet been told,โ Davis said of the new project.
โI am so glad that Anthony McCarten has committed to a no holds barred, musically rich screenplay that finally reveals the whole Whitney whose vocal genius deeply affected the world while she fiercely battled the demons that were to be her undoing.โ

They described the film as a โjoyous, emotional and heart-breaking celebrationโ of Houstonโs life and music, but added that it would also be โvery frank about the price that super-stardom exacted.โ
Houston, 48, whose hits included, โI Will Always Love Youโ and โSaving All My Love for Youโ, drowned in her bathtub at a Beverly Hills hotel in 2012 on the eve of the Grammy Awards after taking cocaine. She had a well-chronicled and years-long battle with drug addiction.
Houston co-starred in the 1992 romantic thriller The Bodyguard and made several other movies. Since her death, the six-time Grammy winner has been the subject of several documentaries but the feature film is the first approved version of her life.
Bohemian Rhapsody writer Anthony McCarten has penned the screenplay and indie filmmaker Stella Meghie is in advanced talks to direct, producers said in a statement.
No casting or release date was announced.