New York (AFP)

A film on the life of the American singer Whitney Houston is in preparation, with the director Stella Meghie in the setting in scene, indicated Wednesday to AFP her press secretary, confirming information of several American media.

"I Wanna Dance With Somebody" will be co-produced by New Zealand screenwriter Anthony McCarten, who also wrote the script, according to the specialized website Deadline.

The 58-year-old author remains on a series of recent successes, all of them biopics, with "The dark hours" (2017), "Bohemian Rhapsody" (2018) and "The two popes" (2019).

The heirs of Whitney Houston, who accidentally died in 2012, have agreed and are collaborating on the project, according to Deadline. The artist's official website resumed the Deadline article on Wednesday.

Also on the team, according to Deadline, producer Clive Davis, the man who made Whitney Houston sign his first recording contract.

Whitney Houston died at the age of 48, drowned in her bathtub after having ingested a large quantity of cocaine.

Despite an end of career marked by drug addiction, she remains as one of the great voices of R'n'B and popular music in general for the past thirty years.

Two recent documentaries have lifted the veil on previously taboo aspects of the life of her gamer in a gospel choir in Newark (New Jersey).

"Whitney" reported that Whitney Houston had been sexually assaulted in her youth by a cousin much older than her.

As for "Whitney: Can I Be Me", it evoked the romantic relationship of the singer with another woman, Robyn Crawford, whom she hid during a good part of her adult life.

"I know the story of Whitney Houston has not yet been told in its entirety," said Clive Davis, in a statement to Deadline.

The producer assured that the scenario would be "without taboo", and "musically rich".

Director Stella Meghie, who will be at the helm, made her name in 2016 with a first film well received by critics, "Jean of the Joneses" (2016), a low-budget family comedy.

Since then, she has directed three other feature films, often romantic comedies, including "The Photograph", released in February in the United States.

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