Member-only story
Aretha Franklin’s Biopic Won’t Come Out Till 2021, But We Are Showing Her Some Love Anyway
Yes, we put some respect on her name
If not for Covid-19, the film about the life of Aretha Franklin would likely be the top-grossing film of the holiday season. It was supposed to have a limited release on December 25 and then move into a full release in 2021, but the pandemic altered those plans. The new release date is set for summer 2021, but that doesn’t mean we still can’t celebrate the Queen of Soul and the work put in by Jennifer Hudson and Forest Whitaker to create this film named for the singer’s 1967 hit.
Oscar-winning set designer Ina Mayhew gave us a glimpse of what to expect in an interview from earlier this year:
The house is the centerpiece of that movie. It was that era of the ’40s and ’50s, and, you know, her mother left when she was seven or eight. It was a balance of the design and style of the house knowing that [her father] had a lot of money. Everything was beautiful and perfect. The real house was in disrepair, and no one lived in it for many years. By 2012, someone bought it, but it was in poor shape. We understood the structure and things like where is the staircase — the stuff that I don’t know that everyone pays attention to. What the yard looks like out the front door. I wanted to make sure we found an exterior house that resembled as close as possible what [Aretha’s childhood house] looked like. It was all about land.
