Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect’ Biopic Delayed to August 2021

Aretha Franklin fans will have to wait until next summer to see the oft-delayed and much-anticipated biopic Respect on the silver screen. The Liesl Tommy-directed film, starring Jennifer Hudson as the Queen of Soul, has been put off from January 15 to August 13, 2021, for a proper rollout.

The film dedicated to Franklin’s unprecedented journey to her throne as the most prized artist of our time — from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international superstardom — was originally set to premiere on August 14. 

It later got pushed back to October 9 and then to a soft opening on December 25, with an extended worldwide debut on January 8, 2021, amid the growing pandemic. Soon after, the movie’s premiere date was moved to January 15, 2021, to coincide with Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. 

Mary J. Blige, Heather Headley, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald, Tituss Burgess, Skye Dakota Turner, and more are set to appear in Respect. 

In anticipation of the biopic, a career-spanning anthology (ARETHA) of remastered classics and rarities by Franklin is still on schedule to arrive on November 20 via Rhino. An alternate version of “Somewhere” from 1973’s Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky) has surfaced. Stream it below.