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There may be two Aretha Franklin biopics coming out this year, but only one so far has the approval of Queen of Soul’s immediate family members.
Aretha Franklin: The Life and Career of the Queen of Soul
Earlier this week, the late singer’s granddaughter, Grace Franklin, posted a TikTok from her family protesting the release of Genius: Aretha, NatGeo’s four-part series starring Oscar-nominated actress Cynthia Erivo as Aretha. The series, for which Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks is showrunner, will premiere on Sunday. In the clip, she sings with her parents, siblings and friends, “This film must go! This movie must go! ”
“As an immediate family, we think it’s important to be involved in any biopic of my grandmother’s life because it’s difficult to get an accurate picture of someone’s life. without talking to loved ones, ”she said later in the clip. “During the process of writing, directing and shooting this film, we contacted Genie as a family on several occasions where we were not respected and said we would not work with. As an immediate family – the emphasis is on the immediate – we do not support this film and we ask that you also do not support this film as we feel extremely despised and we believe there will be many inaccuracies in my grandmother’s life.
In a phone call on Friday, her father and Aretha’s son Kecalf Franklin supported her daughter’s comments. “What we’ve found in the past is that usually when people don’t want to work with you, it’s a prelude to some type of unprofessional behavior or a prelude to some type of lying or lying. slander, so we are not. quite sure where we will see in this series “he said Rolling stone, adding that he has yet to see any excerpt from Genie and I won’t watch it on Sunday. “This is usually the case when people say they don’t want to work with you.”
Production on Genie began about two years ago, just months after Aretha Franklin died in 2018, from pancreatic cancer. At the time, one of Kecalf’s cousins, Sabrina Garrett-Owens, was the estate’s personal representative. By the time she stepped down from her post, she still hadn’t come to an agreement on the family’s involvement in the film. It was around this time that Kecalf says communication ceased between Genie the crew and their family. When they tried to restore it, he says they were pushed back.
“We asked our lawyers to contact them and see if we could have some input and see the movie and say what we like and what we didn’t like,” he says. “And the report we got said it was too late, the production was already over and they didn’t want to work with us. It was basically too late.
“I felt like it wasn’t too late, though, because of how long the movie was going to drop and also how long we contacted them,” he continues. “It looks like the final cut hadn’t been done, that there was something that could have been done in this area, maybe after previewing it. They sent a nondisclosure agreement, but the terms of that contract, they didn’t give us any creative control or anything like that either. So, it’s kind of like they just want us to check it out. But if we didn’t like it then, ‘Oh good. Sorry.'”
Franklin claims that the misunderstanding has nothing to do with financial interest; Any license of his mother’s songs would go through his estate, a separate entity from his immediate family, and he said he was not aware of any agreements between the producers and the estate. “It’s a matter of common and decent respect for our family,” he says. “If I had to make a movie about your family, I would try to talk to you, your sons, your daughters, your grandchildren and people like that. And we never felt like we could talk to them freely about our family member. “
In a statement, NatGeo acknowledged a disconnect with the Franklin family, but maintained the way they conducted research for the Genie series, which focused the past seasons on Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso.
“We have received the message from the family, we hear them and recognize their concern for Ms. Franklin’s legacy,” a network representative said in a statement to Rolling stone. “We believe we have a common goal here: to honor and celebrate the life and legacy of Aretha Franklin. We can tell you that everyone who worked on Genius: Aretha approached telling her story with the intention of respecting Ms. Franklin in every aspect of the show and in every decision we made.
“The studio has worked diligently to secure the approval of Aretha’s estate, which we are grateful to have,” the statement continued. “We worked with many people who knew Ms. Franklin – from Clive Davis to her family estate members – to ensure we were telling her story in an honest and authentic way. This series is called Genie – it’s a tribute to the genius of Aretha – something we hope we can all celebrate. One of the comments from a guest attending our premiere last week was, “Aretha has lived so much life… she needs 100 biopics!”. We couldn’t say better!
Kecalf, who is one of Aretha’s four sons, assumes the only family members the producers could have spoken to would be a few of his cousins. Rolling stones the requests for clarification with which NatGeo worked on the domain were not returned. (Reginald M. Turner, the lawyer representing Franklin’s estate, declined to comment.)
After reading NatGeo’s statement on Friday afternoon, Kecalf wrote a statement in response. “The Genie The series deal was initiated by my cousin Sabrina Garrett-Owens and her lawyer, David Bennett, ”he said. “When my brothers and I learned about this project, the Genie series had already started production. We believe that the producers of this series have neglected to take the necessary steps to properly prepare for this biopic production. Most creations start with a subject’s immediate family to produce the most authentic and honest version of that person’s life. In our opinion, the Genie the series failed to do so. Neither I nor my brothers have ever spoken with the producers of this series. We agree that our mother’s life’s work should be celebrated but with respect.
Garrett-Owens resigned from his post just over a year ago, according to Bennett, who adds that the Genie the producers did not engage her in the making of the image. “During my client’s administration period, including before and after, we had no input into the creative aspects of the production,” he wrote in a statement. “We don’t know what the heirs, or their representatives, or the current administration of the estate have undertaken. Before and after his resignation, all heirs to the estate were aware of the project and had the opportunity to consult with producers on their concerns or make any inquiries they wished.
Earlier today, Kecalf said he was aware there may be a communication issue. “They kind of skipped a step and maybe it wasn’t their fault because the former PR might not have been informed that there were other family members to talk to [Garrett-Owens], “he said.” So it’s unfortunate but, things like that happen. It’s just something you can learn from.
So far, he says the family has had a better experience working with producers of The respect, Aretha Franklin’s other biopic, which stars Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson and is due out this summer. “We are currently working with MGM and… they are trying to negotiate and work with us on their film,” he says. “I really can’t talk about that one because we’re still in negotiations with them.”
Kecalf Franklin hopes to draw attention to the way his mother films are made. “We’re just trying to make sure my mom’s integrity is intact,” says Kecalf, who referred Rolling stone on a website about the singer, JusticeForTheQueen.com. “We must protect her and her heritage at all costs. We just want to make sure that if someone wants to do a project on our mother and grandmother, that first and foremost, they try to contact the inner family nucleus and see if we have a contribution, maybe be trying to work with us to see if there is anything we can contribute to your story. There might be some stories we have that can contribute to your project… It’s just a matter of respect at the end of the day.
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