Lifetime has finally announced a date for the premiere of its Aaliyah biopic.
Aaliyah: Princess of R&B will premiere November 15. The network also released a new photo from the film featuring Alexandra Shipp as the late R&B starlett.
The lifetime movie will be about Aaliyah’s life, including her rise to fame and the tragic plane crash that took her life in 2001.
The road leading to the biopic has been a rocky one as the film and the network received serious backlash from Aaliyah’s family and fans.
Disney star Zendaya Coleman was originally cast as the singer but dropped out after facing extreme backlash and negativity.
Jomo Hankerson, the singer’s cousin and president of her label Blackground Records, also spoke out against the film.
Hankerson told the New York Daily News that the family’s issues weren’t with Zendaya’s casting but with Lifetime saying:
“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.”
“We want a major studio release along the lines of ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It,’ the Tina Turner movie.
“This needs A-list actors, A-list talent that can breathe life into what we think is a phenomenal story.
The film is based on the bestseller “Aaliyah: More Than a Woman” by former Time magazine music editor Christopher Farley, released a few months after her death.
