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The 2023 American Black Film Festival (ABFF) Honors is set to recognize Kerry Washington, Courtney B. Vance, Charles D. King and Janelle Monáe with special honors during the annual award ceremony saluting excellence in the motion picture and television industry.

Washington, an Emmy winner and SAG and Golden Globe-nominated actor, director and producer, will be presented with the Excellence in the Arts Award (Female), while two-time Emmy winner Vance will accept the award for Excellence in the Arts (Male). MacRo founder and CEO King will be presented the Industry Leadership Award, while eight-time Grammy-nominated artist, producer and actor Monáe receives the Renaissance Award. Kasi Lemmons’ 1997 drama “Eve’s Bayou” will be honored with the Classic Cinema Award.

The fifth ABFF Honors will take place on Sunday, March 5, hosted by Emmy-nominated writer, actor and comedian Deon Cole. The intimate, non-televised dinner and award ceremony is executive produced by Nicole and Jeff Friday (under...

“Respect” is Liesl Tommy‘s feature film directorial debut, and no, she never thought her first movie would be an Aretha Franklin biopic. “Just squirreling around New York City trying to get on and off subways with a crew, I never imagined that [my first movie] would be a studio film,” Tommy tells Gold Derby at our Meet the Experts: Film Directors panel (watch above).

A theater vet, Tommy had recently transitioned into TV directing — “Insecure,” “The Walking Dead” and “Jessica Jones” are among her credits — when she had a meeting with MGM about directing the film in late 2018. At the time, Jennifer Hudson had already been cast, selected by Franklin herself, to play the singer and there was no script yet. Tommy arrived for what was supposed to be a “casual chat” with a full vision and pitch for what would become “Respect.”

“I was very aware because I directed primarily theater...

You can probably guess what went through Clint Ramos‘ mind when he was hired as the costume designer for the Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect.” “It was one of disbelief and then just sort of like the gargantuan task of just following that life and that narrative arc of what is arguably the biggest musical star of the 20th century. So I think that was overwhelming,” Ramos tells Gold Derby during our Meet the Experts: Film Costume Design panel (watch above).

Starring Jennifer Hudson as the icon, “Respect” is a decades-spanning biopic, covering Franklin’s life from when she was a 10-year-old child in 1952, the middle of three daughters of famed Baptist pastor C.L. Franklin (Forest Whitaker) to her rise to global fame, and culminating with the recording of her live double album “Amazing Grace” in 1972. Away from the spotlight, Franklin struggled with alcoholism and domestic abuse at the hands of her first husband and manager,...

To honor Aretha Franklin (Jennifer Hudson) in director Liesl Tommy’s musical biopic “Respect,” costume designer Clint Ramos took a deep dive into the Queen of Soul’s psychology. This enabled him to understand the complex emotional, spiritual, and political forces that drove her musical genius. As a result, Ramos created an aesthetic of heightened realism and glam naturalism with more than 80 costumes custom-made for Hudson.

“Aretha was not a slave to fashion, and she wasn’t also a mannequin,” said the Tony Award-winning Ramos. “The best way to describe her was that she was an independent dresser. For me, it really meant that she deployed fashion and clothing in a way to telegraph her emotional state, her spiritual state, and her political state. She was going through a lot of [trauma and abuse] and telegraphing that. She went after the fashion industry for not making clothes that were big enough. So, yes,...

Biopics ain’t Wikipedia entries. Lives never conform to a tidy narrative arc — even one as dramatic as Aretha Franklin’s. With Respect, screenwriter Tracey Scott Wilson and director Liesl Tommy did an admirable job condensing 20 years of the Queen of Soul’s tumultuous life into a mere two-and-a-half hours. Thanks to some impressive research and Jennifer Hudson’s captivating performance as the late icon, the film treats viewers to a host of her most transformative moments. You’re in the studio as Franklin finds the groove for her breakthrough hit,...

R_25682_R (l-r.) Hailey Kilgore stars as Carolyn Franklin, Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin and Saycon Sengbloh as Erma Franklin in Respect, A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Quantrell D. Colbert

As Summer’s season of movie escapism draws to a close, the Fall and Winter awards season gets a bit of an early start as a new film in one of Oscar’s favorite genre “hybrids” is released. On Friday we get a new entry in the “musical biography” line of award ‘”showcases”. Yes, playing a popular singer/performer has proven to be quite a “gold gatherer” for many actors and actresses. Most recently Rami Malek took the big trophy for “channeling” Freddie Mercury in 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody and the following year it was Renee Zellweger in the title role of Judy, as in Ms. Garland. Of course, the years have seen several tune-filled biopics take home...

From age 10 till 30, Aretha Franklin sure could sing, but she hadn’t yet found her voice. At least, that’s the take served up in “Respect,” a solid if somewhat conventional feature directing debut for Broadway helmer Liesl Tommy which flatters Franklin in practically every way, beginning with the casting of Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson as the First Lady of Soul’s younger self. That’s not to say that “Respect” is pure hagiography, even if the title makes clear that Tommy intends for audiences to emerge with a deeper appreciation of the personal struggles — as well as the triumphs — that shaped Franklin’s signature sound.

Pandemic delays pushed “Respect” from the 2020 release calendar to Aug. 13, giving National Geographic’s Cynthia Erivo-starring, Aretha-focused season of “Genius” a chance to reach (small) screens first, despite objections from the Franklin family to some of the series’ tawdrier bits. Still, both projects...

It has not been an easy year for theater lovers, who have mostly made do with well-filmed performances of shows like “Hamilton” and “David Byrne’s American Utopia.”

In contrast to those projects, Liesl Tommy’s Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect” was created as an original film, but it works best when envisioned as a Broadway-style jukebox musical.

Tommy and writer Tracey Scott Wilson are making their cinematic debuts with this sturdy retelling of Franklin’s early life and career. However, they come to the project with impressive stage backgrounds, which inform every aspect of their approach. Any stage, of course, needs a star who can command the space. That the story intermittently recedes into the background might be problematic, were it not for the fact that the spotlight remains resolutely focused on a captivating Jennifer Hudson, who was chosen for the role by Franklin herself, before she passed away in...

Actors will love Liesl Tommy’s Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect.” Thirteen years after the Queen of Soul first approached Jennifer Hudson, who had just won her “Dreamgirls” Oscar, with the idea of playing her in a movie, “Respect” wrapped filming in February 2020, one month before lockdown. MGM decided to push back the movie from December 2020 to August 13, 2021, to give it a chance to play in theaters.

Judging from the way “Respect” played Saturday night at the Bruin Theatre in Westwood to (masked and vaccinated) members of the Screen Actors Guild nominating committee, the studio made the right choice to favor an exclusive theatrical release. Broadway director Tommy has mounted a solid crowdpleaser, written by Tracey Scott Wilson, that will satisfy generations of Franklin fans. And ageless 39-year-old singer-actress Hudson, who plays Franklin from her teens through her acclaimed 1972 gospel concert “Amazing Grace,” is on her way to a second Oscar nomination.

Actors will love Liesl Tommy’s Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect.” Thirteen years after the Queen of Soul first approached Jennifer Hudson, who had just won her “Dreamgirls” Oscar, with the idea of playing her in a movie, “Respect” wrapped filming in February 2020, one month before lockdown. MGM decided to push back the movie from December 2020 to August 13, 2021, to give it a chance to play in theaters.

Judging from the way “Respect” played Saturday night at the Bruin Theatre in Westwood to (masked and vaccinated) members of the Screen Actors Guild nominating committee, the studio made the right choice to favor an exclusive theatrical release. Broadway director Tommy has mounted a solid crowdpleaser, written by Tracey Scott Wilson, that will satisfy generations of Franklin fans. And ageless 39-year-old singer-actress Hudson, who plays Franklin from her teens through her acclaimed 1972 gospel concert “Amazing Grace,” is on her way to a second Oscar nomination.

Of the top contenders for Best Limited Series Actress, British star Cynthia Erivo faced the greatest technical challenges in playing Aretha Franklin in Nat Geo’s “Genius: Aretha.” The category has five slots and is much more competitive than those honoring actors who work in dramatic and comedic series. This 2015 Tony winner for playing Celie in “The Color Purple” and 2019 double Oscar nominee for “Harriet” is currently in the running for an Emmy alongside Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Queen’s Gambit”), Kate Winslet (“Mare of Easttown”), Michaela Coel (“I May Destroy You”) and Elizabeth Olsen (“WandaVision”), according to Gold Derby predictions.

Erivo had to sing Aretha’s greatest hits from a period of 30-odd years, matching live performances of such hits as “You’re All I Need to Get By,” a studio session of her first hit, “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You” and finally the opening bars of “Nessun Dorma,...

A top contender for the Primetime Emmy for Best Documentary or Nonfiction Series this year is “City So Real,” “Hoop Dreams” and “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail” filmmaker Steve James’ exploration of the 2019 mayoral race in Chicago. Below and exclusive to IndieWire, check out a conversation with Steve James as moderated by filmmaker Judd Apatow, who’s currently putting the finishing touches on his upcoming Netflix comedy film “The Bubble.”

In the five-part documentary series “City So Real,” Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Steve James delivers a complex portrait of Chicago, America’s third-largest metropolis and his longtime hometown. The series begins in the middle of summer 2018, as Mayor Rahm Emanuel, caught up in accusations of a cover-up related to the police shooting of a Black teenager, Laquan McDonald, stuns the city by announcing he won’t be seeking reelection.

Following the announcement, an unprecedented 21 candidates crowd the field, engaging in a...

For 50 years, Pastor T.L. Barrett has delivered his sermons and gospel songs to his congregation in Chicago, but his musical impact has spread much farther. A sample of Barrett’s 1976 song “Father Stretch My Hands” laid the foundation for Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo tracks of the same name. The transcendent “Like a Ship” has featured in commercials, TV shows and the Oscar-nominated, Obamas-produced documentary Crip Camp, and most recently covered by Leon Bridges. His “Nobody Knows” has been sampled nearly 10 times in the past decade alone, including...

As “Genius: Aretha” star Cynthia Erivo explained during a recent American Cinematheque Zoom conversation, she gained great insight into Aretha Franklin by watching a wide range of interviews she gave over the years. “I saw a progression of a person,” she explained. “How confident she was, how soft-spoken she would be at the beginning and how sort of lilting the questions and answers that she would give and how much time she would give to an answer.”

But as the years progressed, Erivo discovered that the singer of such classics as “Respect,” “Think,” “Natural Woman” and ‘Freeway of Love” got bigger, more expressive and had fun with interviews. “There’s an interview in the ‘80s where she’s in her house and she’s playing the piano. She gets the interviewer to sing with her and she’s laughing. She cooks. It’s just sort of vivacious.”

Erivo, who is a Tony,...

“Anybody who is of that generation that came from that great migration from the deep South, leaving sharecropping days, they were harmed,” explains Emmy winner Courtney B. Vance while discussing his portrayal of Reverend C.L. Franklin in the National Geographic bioseries “Genius: Aretha.” “Everyone was harmed in that situation. The psychosis was deep. And we’re still feeling the ramifications of that psychosis, that psychoticness of telling a people that we have complete control over your entire bodies, minds and souls.” Watch the exclusive video interview above.

“Genius: Aretha” stars Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo as Aretha Franklin and chronicles the Queen of Soul’s rise to superstardom from a young girl singing in her father’s (Reverend Franklin’s) church in Detroit. “He left his daughter with a sense of no matter what happens, you’re gonna keep going,” Vance continues in depicting Reverend Franklin’s impact on his daughter.

What becomes a legend most? Cynthia Erivo and Jennifer Hudson both tackled the Goddess of Soul in rival projects delayed by the pandemic. British-born Oscar-nominated Erivo (“Harriet”) explores the singer in an expansive eight-part series produced without the advance blessing of the Franklin estate in NatGeo’s third season of the “Genius” anthology, “Genius: Aretha,” while Oscar-winner Hudson (“Dreamgirls”) was hand-picked by Franklin before she died in 2018 to star in a two-hour MGM/UA movie which finally hits theaters August 13.

All it will take for Erivo to attain Egot status is an Oscar win, while Hudson needs a Tony and an Emmy. Both women boast extraordinary voices with range comparable to Franklin, and sang most of their songs live, but had to brush up their on-camera piano playing (backed up by pros on the soundtrack) to take on the famed gospel singer-turned-global music star. With support from the estate, Hudson...

What becomes a legend most? Cynthia Erivo and Jennifer Hudson both tackled the Goddess of Soul in rival projects delayed by the pandemic. British-born Oscar-nominated Erivo (“Harriet”) explores the singer in NatGeo’s third season of the “Genius” anthology, the expansive eight-part series “Genius: Aretha,” while Oscar-winner Hudson (“Dreamgirls”) was hand-picked by Franklin before she died in 2018 to star in an estate-blessed two-hour MGM/UA movie which finally hits theaters August 13.

All it will take for Erivo to attain Egot status is an Oscar win, while Hudson needs a Tony and an Emmy. Both women boast extraordinary voices with range comparable to Franklin, and sang most of their songs live, but had to brush up their on-camera piano playing (backed up by pros on the soundtrack) to take on the famed gospel singer-turned-global music star. With support from the estate, Hudson got to sing the title song, “Respect” and other...

1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything highlights the almost psychic rapport between radicals and radical thinking musicians. One activist brought together the Queen of Soul and the top royalty of British Rock. The documentary points out how Aretha Franklin offered to post bail for Angela Davis, but the former philosophy professor also drew in support from The Rolling Stones, former Beatle John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and by extension, Bob Dylan.

Angela Davis was born to encourage free thought. The neighborhood where she grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, was called “Dynamite Hill,” because the Ku Klux Klan tried to bomb middle-class Blacks out of the area. Cops broke up interracial study groups Angela organized in high school, and she knew some of the young girls killed in the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham. She spoke French, graduated Brandeis and traveled to Europe before she became a UCLA philosophy instructor. She joined the Black Panthers,...

Five top TV showrunners will reveal the magic behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with key 2021 guild and Emmy contenders this month. Each person will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Thursday, June 3, at 5:00 p.m. Pt; 8:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Daniel Montgomery and a group chat with Daniel and all of the group together.

RSVP today to this specific event by clicking here to book your reservation. Or click here to RSVP for our entire ongoing panel series. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.

This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following 2021 guild and Emmy contenders:

“The Boys”: Eric Kripke

Synopsis: A group of vigilantes set out to take down corrupt superheroes who abuse their superpowers.

“The Comey Rule...

The official trailer and poster for Respect, the biopic of Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, have been released.

The film from MGM Pictures in association with Bron Creative and One Community arrives August 13 in theaters and stars Jennifer Hudson as Franklin. The story follows her rise from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to international superstardom.

Also on board for the film are Forest Whitaker as C.L. Franklin, Marlon Wayans as Ted White, Audra McDonald as Barbara Franklin, Tituss Burgess asReverend Dr. James Cleveland, Marc Maron as Jerry Wexler, Kimberly Scott as Mama Franklin, Saycon Sengbloh as Erma Franklin, Hailey Kilgore asCarolyn Franklin, Heather Headley as Clara Ward, Skye Dakota Turner as Young Aretha Franklin, Tate Donovan as John Hammond, and Mary J. Blige as Dinah Washington.

Director Liesl Tommy makes her feature film debut with Respect. Tommy is the first Black woman nominated for a...

The Queen of Soul finds her voice in the new trailer for Respect, the Aretha Franklin biopic starring Jennifer Hudson that arrives in theaters this August.

The first full preview for the Liesl Tommy-directed film opens with a young Franklin showcasing her gospel talents at the piano. “Singing is sacred, and you shouldn’t do it just because somebody wants you to,” her mother tells her. “What’s most important is that you are treated with dignity and respect.”

The trailer also focuses on the birth of Franklin’s Otis Redding-penned hit “Respect,...

“What could be better?” asks production designer Tim Galvin while describing his recent task of creating the sets for National Geographic’s “Genius: Aretha.” “I was so happy to be invited onto the job. It seemed like a great surprise for me. It all was very serendipitous. In reading the script this was going to be some kind of great job.” Watch the exclusive video interview above.

The limited series stars Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo as Aretha Franklin and chronicles the Queen of Soul’s rise to fame from singing in her father’s church to becoming one of the world’s most revered entertainers. The challenge of creating a world that spans from the 1940s to the 1990s required extensive research and Galvin was thrilled when director Anthony Hemingway allowed him to “be bold.”

Despite Franklin being a public figure, the songstress was notably private which provided Galvin with...

“Mahalia,” the Lifetime biopic produced by Robin Roberts and starring “Orange is the New Black’s” Danielle Brooks, tells the story of gospel and jazz singer Mahalia Jackson — but it doesn’t quite cover everything.

Throughout her life, Jackson went from a “fish and bread singer” — e.g., traveling the South singing gospel music for little pay to make ends meet — to performing in front of sold-out, racially integrated audiences at Carnegie Hall and at former President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural ball. Jackson’s first hit, “Move On Up a Little Higher,” her own rendition of a traditional spiritual, launched her to international stardom and became one of the best-selling gospel songs of all time, with over 2 million copies sold.

While Lifetime’s scripted film certainly covers a lot of ground — including Jackson’s health struggles, multiple romantic partners and passion for civil rights work — there are quite a...

Aretha Franklin’s relationship with her family and husband are a key part of National Geographic’s “Genius: Aretha” series — including her father, Rev. C.L. Franklin, a Baptist minister and civil rights activist.

In a recent interview, Courtney B. Vance, who plays C.L. Franklin (often called “the man with the million-dollar voice”) in the scripted series based on Aretha’s life, said that the tension between father and daughter was often palpable.

“Seven years, it took Aretha to break through and find her own voice and when she did, she and he battled because it was, ‘I made you,’ but ‘I’m here now, daddy.’ So the journey and the tension between the two of them was palpable,” Vance told Variety.

Aretha’s mother, Barbara Franklin, died four years after separating from her husband, so Aretha and her sisters were raised by their father and grandmother.

C.L. encouraged...

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Aretha Franklin was the kind of shooting star that sprints through the atmosphere only once in a lifetime. Born on March 25, 1942, the talented singer-songwriter honed her craft in church, and became an icon whose music will continue to inspire legions of recording artists for generations to come.

In a career of more than 60 years, the Queen of Soul sold over 75 million records, won 18 Grammys, became the first female Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and amassed a collection of legendary hits soundtracking our lives with timeless anthems such as “Respect,” “Do Right Woman,” and “Rock Steady.”

Franklin’s death from pancreatic cancer in 2018 was a devastating loss to the music world, but...

Courtney B. Vance has a gift for tapping into rich and complex, larger-than-life men. In 2016, for example, he won an Emmy for his portrayal of real-life lawyer Johnnie Cochran in “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”; just last year he took on the role of George Freeman in HBO’s “Lovecraft Country”( for which he now sees a SAG Award ensemble nomination) and now he can be seen as Pastor C.L. Franklin aka the titular Queen of Soul’s father in National Geographic’s four-night event, “Genius: Aretha.”

How did you balance getting inside C.L.’s mind to portray him with the father-daughter relationship he had with Aretha? Did you have to separate and compartmentalize his story from theirs?

The generation that he came from were sharecroppers, and the idea that a Black man could actually go from sharecropping with no future to being the “Million-Dollar...

Aretha Franklin sang about “Respect” but what she really craved was control.

Franklin, who was undeniably brilliant, fiercely wanted to protect the love and loss within her private life as well as have a say in the strategic trajectory of her career. These are two of the major themes thoughtfully explored in Nat Geo’s Genius: Aretha, which premiered with two episodes Sunday March 21. Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo sings beautifully and delivers a masterful performance as the icon at various stages of her life in the titular role. And Courtney B. Vance shines as he steals countless...

In the wake of Aretha Franklin’s death in 2018, competing biopics on the Queen of Soul were announced: one coming to movie screens and the other making up the third season of National Geographic’s anthology series “Genius.” Both biopics were delayed by a year because of the global pandemic, and now “Genius: Aretha” is the first release to set the tone for our view of Franklin as a performer, a legend, and a woman.

The series starts with a grown Aretha (Cynthia Erivo) arriving at Muscle Shoals to work under acclaimed music producer Jerry Wexler (David Cross). She’s brought along her husband, Ted White (Malcolm Barrett) and almost immediately the dynamic between the pair is evident. It also introduces one of the more frustrating things about “Genius: Aretha”: It’s a biography told with a muddled chronology, and this storytelling technique is distracting and confounding.

In this...

Among the the music biopic’s many tropes is the inevitable recording-session scene, where we watch a recreation of the artist at work — or, if the subject is a band, see them quarrel and throw drum sticks at each other. Rare, though, are the sequences where you feel as if you’re truly witnessing art emerge — which is precisely what happens about three-quarters of the way through Genius: Aretha, the eight-part mini-series that debuts on the National Geographic channel on March 21st, and will be streaming online next day on Hulu.

Cynthia Erivo belts “Amazing Grace” as Aretha Franklin in a new teaser for Nat Geo’s Genius: Aretha, which premieres on March 21st.

The 30-second spot (which will also air during the Grammys this Sunday, March 14th) centers around footage of Erivo as Franklin singing an a cappella rendition of the famous hymn. It’s paired with a montage of clips that show Franklin working as both an artist and activist, her rise as the Queen of Soul juxtaposed with the tumult of the Civil Rights era.

Genius: Aretha...

Everyone wants concerts to come back. Everyone who attended the premiere event for Nat Geo’s “Genius: Aretha” at the makeshift drive-in in the Rose Bowl parking lot Thursday had a more specific wish: that Cynthia Erivo concerts would come back. Never mind that that really hasn’t much of a thing up till now, with Erivo being too busy with acting gigs to tour. The premiere screening was followed by a taped performance by Erivo, filmed last weekend nearby in an empty Greek Theatre, that made it clear the road and audiences along it will be ready whenever she is.

The end of Erivo’s 20-minute performance met with considerable honking from a car-bound crowd that couldn’t help but momentarily forego the Rose Bowl setting’s rules about laying off the horn. The mini-concert, first revealed in a “Just for Variety” preview, had Erivo arriving on the Greek...

Another one bites the dust, folks. Insert your own joke here about this movie not being able to get any Oscar respect, but we’ve lost a new awards player, folks. Yes, Respect is officially moving even further into the 2021 cycle, removing it from Academy Award contention here in this unique 2020 season. Obviously, it could still be a contender next year, but cross it off of this year’s life. The Aretha Franklin biopic, which stars Jennifer Hudson as the legendary singer, now becomes the latest victim of Covid-19 and the theatrical experience largely being on pause in the major markets. Read on for more… According to Variety, MGM has changed their January 15th release date to August 13th. Starring Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin, the movie had already abandoned an August release date here in 2020, so it’ll be nearly a year delay when all is said and done here.

Exhibitors got another setbacks today as MGM/United Artists Releasing has delayed the release of the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect, starring Jennifer Hudson, from January 15 to August 13. MGM also has pulled its Tomb Raider sequel starring Alicia Vikander from its March 19 premiere date; that film now is unset.

The moves come amid continuing uncertainty gripping the global theatrical business as theaters in several international territories reducing their hours of operation or close temporarily.

Respect initially was set to unspool in a Christmas Day platform release, but was moved in July to a wide opening this coming Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. The film is directed by Liesl Tommy and stars Dreamgirls Oscar winner Hudson as the Queen of Soul, Forest Whitaker as C.L. Franklin, Marlon Wayans as Ted White, Mary J. Blige as Dinah Washington and Tituss Burgess as Rev. Dr. James Cleveland.

As for Tomb Raider 2, it...

MGM has delayed “Respect,” the Aretha Franklin biopic starring Jennifer Hudson, by seven months from Jan. 15 to Aug. 13 in the latest shuffle of a major title amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The studio also announced Tuesday that it has removed “Tomb Raider 2,” starring Alicia Vikander, from its March 19 release date.

“Respect,” titled after Franklin’s 1967 hit, had originally been scheduled to be released in August of this year but was shifted at the start of the pandemic to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. Hudson, who won a supporting actress Oscar for “Dreamgirls,” was personally selected for the role by Franklin before Franklin died in 2018 at the age of 76.

Franklin won 17 Grammys, starting with “Respect” in 1968 and “Chain of Fools” in 1969. The film, directed by Liesl Tommy, also stars Forest Whitaker as C.L. Franklin, Marlon Wayans as Ted White, Mary J. Blige as Dinah Washington and Tituss Burgess as Rev.

Exclusive: In the wake of the great response from Jennifer Hudson’s performance of Aretha Franklin’s “Young, Gifted & Black” on the BET Awards, and the 60 minute trailer that followed, MGM/United Artists Releasing is now going wide with their biopic about the legendary performer on Jan. 15, 2021, MLK weekend. The all-in move shows how much confidence they have in the film’s commercial potential.

Previously, the studio was planning to platform the movie, with a limited Christmas Day debut, an expansion on Jan. 8 and full-on wide release on Jan. 15. Also, having an extension to the Oscar-qualifying period (to the end of February) helps. It will be interesting to see how many more studios follow this model, versus the typical Thanksgiving-Christmas crunch for award pedigree films.

Respect is directed by Liesl Tommy and stars Dreamgirls Oscar winner Hudson as Franklin, Forest Whitaker as C.L. Franklin, Marlon Wayans as Ted White, Mary J. Blige as Dinah Washington,...

The first trailer for Respect has landed. Jennifer Hudson is playing Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, in the movie, which will undoubtedly get some more hype when awards season begins. Hudson, already known for being a great singer, has stepped up her game in a major way for the upcoming movie and we've only seen a few minutes of footage at this time. There is a reason that Franklin handpicked the actress to play her on the big screen before her death.

Respect takes a look at the life of Aretha Franklin from singing in her father's church choir to becoming one of the most famous voices of all time. The movie also charts some of the setbacks she faced along the way, which were abundant. The project has been in the works for a number of years, with Franklin on board until her death in 2018. At this time,...

Jennifer Hudson stars as Aretha Franklin in Respect A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Quantrell D. Colbert / © 2020 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved

Following the rise of Aretha Franklin’s career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international superstardom, Respect is the remarkable true story of the music icon’s journey to find her voice.

Director Liesl Tommy makes her feature film debut with Respect. Tommy is the first Black woman ever nominated for a Tony award for Best Direction of a Play in 2016 for Eclipsed, and is an Associate Artist at the Berkeley Rep and an Artist Trustee with the Sundance Institute’s Board of Trustees.

Check out the first trailer starring Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald, Marc Maron, Tituss Burgess, Saycon Sengbloh, Hailey Kilgore, Skye Dakota Turner, Tate Donovan, and Mary J. Blige. See the film this December.

Jennifer Hudson channels Aretha Franklin in the first teaser trailer for the upcoming biopic of the late Queen of Soul “Respect,” which debuted Sunday during the BET Awards ceremony.

The film, directed by Tony-nominated director Liesl Tommy in her feature film debut, follows the rise of Franklin’s career from a child singing in her father’s church choir to her international superstardom.

In addition to Hudson, the film also stars Forest Whitaker as her Baptist minister father C.L. Franklin, Audra McDonald as her mother, Barbara Franklin, Marlon Wayans as her first husband, Ted White, Marc Maron as music producer Jerry Wexler, Tituss Burgess as gospel music legend James Cleveland, Saycon Sengbloh as sister Erma Franklin, Hailey Kilgore as Carolyn Franklin, Heather Headley as gospel singer Clara Ward, Skye Dakota Turner as young Aretha, Tate Donovan as record producer John Hammond and Mary J. Blige as Dinah Washington.

Also Read:...

The first full trailer for MGM’s “Respect,” the upcoming Aretha Franklin starring vocal powerhouse Jennifer Hudson as the Queen of Soul, has arrived. The preview dropped Sunday night following Hudson’s performance at the BET Awards, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year.

The film directed by Liesl Tommy was originally slated to open in theaters October 9, but was pushed to a limited Christmas Day debut, to be followed by an expansion kicking off January 8 and a wide opening on January 15, timed for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. Expect a major awards play for star Hudson, who previously won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her scene-stealing turn in the musical “Dreamgirls.” Watch the trailer for “Respect” below.

The film charts the highs and lows of Franklin’s life and career. She began as a young gospel singer in Detroit and became a smash success after signing...

In today’s film news roundup, Jennifer Hudson’s “Respect” is moved back two months; another film festival is postponed; and “Lupin the Third: the First” and “Raising Buchanan” find distribution; and Prominent Productions launches.

Release Date

MGM has moved the release date of Jennifer Hudson’s Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect” from Oct. 9 to late in the awards seasons with a limited Christmas Day debut.

“Respect,” titled after Franklin’s 1967 hit, will expand Jan. 8 and go into wide release Jan. 15 at the start of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. Hudson, who won a supporting actress Oscar for “Dreamgirls,” was personally selected for the role by Franklin before Franklin died in 2018 at the age of 76.

Franklin won 17 Grammys, starting with “Respect” in 1968 and “Chain of Fools” in 1969. The film, directed by Liesl Tommy, also stars Forest Whitaker as C.L. Franklin, Marlon Wayans as Ted White, Mary J. Blige as...

Exclusive: I hear the dailies of Jennifer Hudson in MGM’s Aretha Franklin biopic Respect are mind-blowing, and to tee off the feature just right the studio is moving it off its October 9 release date for a limited Christmas Day debut.

From there, Respect will expand January 8 in theaters with a full-on wide release January 15, which is Mlk weekend.

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While many studios jockey to launch their awards-season fare in the thick of autumn, a movie can still go in the tail-end holiday season to garnish buzz and bucks, i.e., American Sniper, 1917 and Hidden Figures, all of which were blockbusters and Oscar-lauded movies.

Respect is directed by Liesl Tommy and stars...

Cynthia Erivo is ready for her close-up as Aretha Franklin!

The Oscars nominee, 33, completes her transformation into the Queen of Soul in the first teaser for National Geographic’s Genius: Aretha, a biographical television anthology series about the legendary singer.

In a short trailer released on Friday, Erivo captures Franklin’s passion for music — from her humble upbringing to recording her iconic hits in the studio.

“What kind of music do you really want to make, Miss Franklin?” producer Jerry Wexler, played by actor David Cross, asks her at one point in the clip.

To which Erivo’s Franklin replies,...

National Geographic and Fox 21 Television Studios will release a first-look, national teaser promo for Genius: Aretha during this Sunday’s Oscars telecast airing on ABC, a sister network of NatGeo, which is also owned by Disney.

Cynthia Erivo, a 2020 Academy Awards nominee, stars as Aretha Franklin in the third season of the global anthology series. Set to perform Stand Up live during the Oscars, Erivo is nominated in two categories: Actress in a Leading Role and Music (Original Song) for the film Harriet.

Genius: Aretha will premiere over four consecutive nights, beginning Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, at 9/8c. The series will be the first authorized scripted limited series on the life of Aretha Franklin. The eight-part series will explore Franklin’s musical genius and career, and the immeasurable impact and lasting influence she has had on music and culture around the world.

The cast includes Cynthia Erivo as Aretha Franklin; Courtney B. Vance (The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story) as C.L. Franklin; David Cross as Jerry Wexler; Malcolm Barrett as Ted White; Pauletta Washington (She’s Gotta Have It) as Grandmother Rachel; Patrice Covington (Broadway’s The Color Purple) as Erma Franklin; Rebecca Naomi Jones (The Big Sick) as Carolyn Franklin; Steven Norfleet (Watchmen) as Cecil Franklin; Kimberly Hébert Gregory (Vice Principals) as Ruth Bowen; Omar J. Dorsey (Queen Sugar) as James Cleveland; Marque Richardson (Dear White People) as King Curtis; and introducing Shaian Jordan as Little Re.

Imagine is partnering with Warner Music Entertainment for this third season, which will again be executive produced by Imagine’s Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. Suzan-Lori Parks is showrunner and executive producer, and Anthony Hemingway is executive producer and producing director for the season.

Record producer Clive Davis and Atlantic Records Chairman and CEO Craig Kallman have also joined as executive producers. Returning executive producers include Francie Calfo, Ken Biller, Gigi Pritzker and Rachel Shane (Mwm Studios), and Sam Sokolow (Eue/Sokolow). In addition, Imagine’s Anna Culp serves as producer alongside Peter Afterman.

Cynthia Erivo is transformed into the late, great Queen of Soul in a first-look photo from Genius: Aretha, the upcoming biographical series from National Geographic and Fox 21 Television Studios.

See the photo below.

Erivo, a Tony Award winner for Broadway’s 2015 The Color Purple and the star of this year’s Harriet Tubman biopic Harriet, will play Aretha Franklin in the third installment of the series (following seasons devoted to Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso).

“Over the last few months,” said Erivo, “I’ve been preparing myself to embody the Queen of Soul, from relistening to her music to discovering her rare interviews and reading some amazing books on her — all to really capture Aretha’s attitude and spirit. I’m truly humbled to be working alongside a very talented and musical team. Together, we’ll serve the Queen and create something special.”

Also featured in the cast are...

Courtney B. Vance will play father to a music icon in the Aretha Franklin installment of National Geographic’s anthology series Genius.

Vance, who won an Emmy Award for playing defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran in The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, will take on the role of C.L. Franklin, an influential reverend and civil rights activist known as the “Million Dollar Voice.” C.L. and his daughter Aretha (portrayed as an adult by Harriet‘s Cynthia Erivo) shared a close but fraught relationship as he supported her throughout her career.

More from TVLineTVLine Items: Timeless Vet Is Aretha's Husband,...

Courtney B. Vance, an Emmy winner for his performance as Johnnie Cochran in FX’s The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, is set to star opposite Cynthia Erivo in Genius: Aretha, the next installment of Nat Geo’s popular anthology series, from Imagine Television and Fox 21 TV Studios.

Billed as the first-ever, definitive and only authorized scripted limited series on the life of Franklin, Genius: Aretha will begin production in December for a spring 2020 premiere on National Geographic channels in 172 countries and 43 languages.

Vance joins as Aretha’s (Erivo) father, C.L. Franklin, an influential reverend and civil rights activist known as the “Million Dollar Voice.” A star in his own right, C.L.’s legendary sermons were published and sold in record stores and broadcast on a weekly radio show, and he booked national ministry tours and public appearances. C.L. had a close but fraught relationship...

Courtney B. Vance has joined the cast of the upcoming third season of “Genius” at Nat Geo, which will focus on Aretha Franklin.

Vance will star as Aretha’s father C.L. Franklin. Cynthia Erivo is set to play Aretha, with Malcolm Barrett, Patrice Covington, Kimberly Hébert Gregory, Rebecca Naomi Jones, and Sanai Victoria also set to star in the eight-episode season. Suzan-Lori Parks serves as showrunner and executive producer with Anthony Hemingway executive producing and directing. The season is slated to debut in the spring.

C.L. Franklin is described as an influential reverend and civil rights activist known as the “Million Dollar Voice.” A star in his own right, C.L.’s legendary sermons were published and sold in record stores and broadcast on a weekly radio show, and he booked national ministry tours and public appearances. C.L. had a close but fraught relationship with his daughter and supported her throughout her career,...

The Aretha Franklin season of Nat Geo’s “Genius” anthology series has added “American Crime Story” alum Courtney B. Vance to its cast.

Vance will star opposite Cynthia Erivo in “Genius: Aretha,” playing the late soul singer’s father, C.L. Franklin, an influential reverend and civil rights activist known as the “Million Dollar Voice.”

Nat Geo describes him as, “A star in his own right, C.L.’s legendary sermons were published and sold in record stores and broadcast on a weekly radio show, and he booked national ministry tours and public appearances. C.L. had a close but fraught relationship with his daughter and supported her throughout her career, most notably when he encouraged her transition from singing gospel to more popular genres.”

Also Read: 'Genius': Nat Geo Finds Its Aretha Franklin for Next Season of Historical Anthology

Suzan-Lori Parks will serve as showrunner on the new season, with...

National Geographic has cast another award-winning actor in Genius: Aretha, chronicling the life of the late Aretha Franklin.

Emmy winner Courtney B. Vance (The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story) will star opposite Grammy and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo in the third season of the anthology series. He will play Aretha's father, C.L. Franklin, an influential minister and civil rights activist — and a star in his own right.

Genius: Aretha will mark a reunion between Vance and People v. O.J. Simpson director Anthony Hemingway, who is an executive producer and producing director on the series. Nat Geo is ...

Forty-seven years ago, in 1972, when Sydney Pollack filmed Aretha Franklin recording her Amazing Grace album, he did not use clapper boards. Franklin, then 29, had recently released Spirit in the Dark (1970) and Young, Gifted and Black (1972), and decided to record Amazing Grace probably because some of her critics believed that she had started straying from her gospel roots. Daughter of Baptist minister C.L. Franklin, Ms. Franklin not only decided to record an album of gospel songs that she had grown up singing, but also decided to record it in Los Angeles’ New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in front of a live audience, thereby proving that her roots were intact and nourishing one of the most magnificent musical geniuses our times have known. Franklin’s co-producer, Jerry Wexler, had arranged for Warner Bros. to film the recording and had signed up Sydney Pollack to film the proceedings. At the end of shooting...