Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin - Sparkle - (1978)
Live in Edmington in Canada. Very rare footage. Written & produced by Curtis Mayfield.
Sparkle was also a successful film, and is something of a cult classic among African-American audiences. Its success was inspirational in the creation of the musical that would eventually debut on Broadway in 1981 as Dreamgirls.

In fact, one of Dreamgirls' central characters is named "Effie", the name of the Mary Alice character in Sparkle. The film's soundtrack album, featuring Aretha Franklin in place of the actresses in the film, was also a success. Two of Sparkle's stars, Dorian Harewood and Irene Cara, portray Alex Haley's parents in the 1979 miniseries Roots: The Next Generations.

Warner Bros. and Whitney Houston's BrownHouse Productions had planned a modernized remake of Sparkle at the turn of the 21st century. Aaliyah was signed to star as Sparkle, but died in August 2001 before production began.

Although the film was put on hold following the singer's death, Now the remake is in the beginning process with plans to cast R&B singers Alicia keys as Sister, Keyshia Cole as Dolores, Jordin Sparks as Sparkle, and Omarion as Stix.

Sparkle was released on VHS in the early 1990s. After being long out of print and unavailable save for television broadcasts, Sparkle was released on DVD on January 2, 2007. An abbreviated edition of the accompanying Aretha Franklin album was included on a bonus disc. - Wikipedia