When Liesl Tommy’s Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect” opens, Aretha is still just a kid, hoping to please her dad (the formidable minister C.L. Franklin, played here by a well-cast Forest Whitaker) with ...

Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson expertly embodies many aspects of the young Aretha Franklin in “Respect,” but she drew the line when it came to smoking cigarettes in director’s Liesl Tommy’s ...

Tom Santilli is a respected journalist and member of the Critics Choice Association, Detroit Film Critics Society and Online Film Critics Society since 2010. Tom is the Executive Producer and co-host ...

HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES -- In the new movie "Respect," Jennifer Hudson takes on the monumental role of the late, great Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. "Respect" tells the story of Franklin's ...

Editors note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates the scripts of films that will be factors in this year’s movie awards race. When it came to encapsulating the epic life, ...

The new biopic “Respect” runs through two decades of Aretha Franklin’s life in 2½ hours, starting at age 9 and culminating with her back-to-the-roots gospel project “Amazing Grace.” The film, starring ...

It’s January 2020, but the Hudgens Center in Duluth, Ga., is thrown back to Concertgebouw Amsterdam in 1968. Jennifer Hudson, radiant in an intricately beaded Swarovski crystal gown, is roaring ...

The 'Dreamgirls' star looks and sounds great in the role, but this overly respectful biopic steers clear of revealing the traumas that shaped the soul legend. Pandemic delays pushed “Respect” from the ...

'Respect' screenwriter Tracey Scott Wilson speaks with Showbiz Cheat Sheet about writing the Aretha Franklin biopic. Scott Wilson addressed how she chose which songs to include in the movie, and even ...

Aretha Franklin deserved a better movie than “Respect.” But it will do for now. For those who watched Franklin’s meteoric rise in the 1960s and ’70s, she, like so many of her peers, became famous ...

"I don't think I would have been able to dig that deep or connect in a way had I not been through things myself," Hudson told InStyle Jennifer Hudson is reflecting on how relating to Aretha Franklin's ...

Star Jennifer Hudson hits a few high notes in a film beset by the usual biopic tropes and shortcuts, few of which allow for a deep enough look at the Queen of Soul. When Liesl Tommy’s Aretha Franklin ...