The Bodyguard remake to feature ‘young Latina’ in Whitney Houston’s role
Matthew Lopez said the film will tell the story of an up-and-coming star.
The Bodyguard remake will feature a young Latina actress in the role made famous by Whitney Houston, the film’s writer has said.
Pop superstar Houston starred in the 1992 classic original alongside Kevin Costner.
While the first film featured Houston as an established, globally popular musician, the remake will take a different approach.
Matthew Lopez, who this week became the first Latino playwright to win the Tony Award for best play, is penning The Bodyguard and said it will focus on a young Latina actress.
He told Variety: “It’s so much fun. When Warner Bros approached me about the idea, I quickly said I would but I wanted the protagonist to be Latina. They agreed to that.
“There’s been a lot of speculation about what I’d bring to the remake and some people were assuming that there’d be a gay storyline to it.
“Instead of focusing on an established star like the one Whitney Houston played, this is about a young Latina performer who has just become famous.
“It’s about how her life has changed because she is an overnight sensation. In the 21st century, that means she’s in immediate need of protection.”
Lopez, who won a Tony for The Inheritance, was born in Florida and is of Puerto Rican descent.
He added: “It was important to me to use this opportunity to get Latin faces up on that screen and to get their stories told in a big way.”
The Bodyguard featured Houston, who died in 2012 aged 48, in her first acting role as a music superstar and Costner as the former secret service agent hired to protect her.
The soundtrack, featuring songs including I Will Always Love You and I Have Nothing, was a massive hit.
