Story highlights
NEW: Producers defended the film
Lifetime's TV-movie about late singer Aaliyah received widespread disdain on Twitter
Fans critiqued the casting, which they felt was all wrong
Aaliyah's family gave no support to the movie
“Liz and Dick” had nothing on this Lifetime movie.
Like that previous Lifetime attempt, viewers on Twitter loved to hate “Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B.”
Fans of the late singer were none too pleased with it, and it’s little wonder that her family reportedly provided no support to it (none of her original songs were in the film either).
Original star Zendaya Coleman backed out of the movie earlier this year, saying it all seemed “a little rushed.”
One of her producers, Timbaland, made no bones about his dissatisfaction with the movie as well.
Aaliyah had a very successful recording career, singing many hits before her tragic death at age 22 in a 2001 plane crash.
The biopic – especially some of the casting – was seen as so bad that it spawned at least two hashtags, “#LifetimeBeLike” and “#LifetimeBiopic.”
Below, a few good examples of the many, many tweets on the topic.
Before the biopic aired, producers defended it. The Washington Post reported that executive producers Howard Braunstein and Debra Martin Chase, as well as Christopher Farley, the author of “Aaliyah: More Than a Woman,” on which the movie was based, said it was their goal to present a tasteful tribute to the late singer.
“Biopics are hard,” Chase said. “People have an opinion and social media allows them to voice that opinion. But at the end of the day, our goal was to make the best movie possible.”
Tell us what you thought about the movie in the comments.