A biopic on the life of the late R&B star Aaliyah titled “Aaliyah: Princess of R&B” will be aired on Lifetime this Fall, the network announced Thursday. Alexandra Shipp (Nickelodeon’s “House of Anubis”) will play the role of Aaliyah as the Lifetime original movie follows the singer’s rise to fame and sudden death in 2001.
The project has been met with sharp criticism from both fans and family of the late singer ever since the movie was announced by the network over the summer. Fans started a petition to boycott the film when Disney star Zendaya Coleman was given the lead role, but the 18-year-old ended up backing out of the project over what she considered poor production values and moral discord.
Jomo Hankerson, cousin and president Aaliyah’s Blackground Records, claims the family didn’t have any issues with Zendaya’s casting but rather with the network.
“It’s never been about the actress. The problem that we have is that Aaliyah was an icon and she deserves an iconic tribute, not a Lifetime movie,” Hankerson told the New York Daily News.
“We want a major studio release along the lines of ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It,’ the Tina Turner movie,” he added. “This needs A-list actors, A-list talent that can breathe life into what we think is a phenomenal story.”
In addition, Hankerson claims the network never consulted the family about the biopic. “They have people they can talk to, people who can provide lots of color,” said Hankerson. “But if you don’t talk to us, it’s not in the story.”
The Lifetime biopic is based on the bestselling book “Aaliyah: More Than a Woman,” written and released by former Time magazine music editor Christopher Farley shortly after her death. The 22-year-old and eight others were killed in a plane crash in the Bahamas on August 25, 2001 after their overloaded twin-engine Cessna 402B crashed two hundred feet past the runway. She had just wrapped filming her music video “Rock the Boat” (shown below) earlier that day.
“Aaliyah: Princess of R&B” premieres on Lifetime on November 15.
