Whitney Houston plans to warble her way back into the movies with a supporting role in Salim Akil’s remake of the 1976 soul drama Sparkle, according to the Hollywood Reporter Sparkle, about the basso lows and chord-shredding highs of a 1950s girl group (based loosely on the story of the Supremes), stars American Idol winner Jordin Sparks as a young singer who is plucked from a Harlem gospel choir and propelled to stardom. Houston, who won plaudits for her debut acting role in 1992’s The Bodyguard, but hasn’t acted on the big screen since the 1996 film The Preacher’s Wife, will play Sparks’s mother, who’s none-too-keen on encouraging her daughter’s dreams. Houston has been involved with the Sparkle project for at least 10 years. She was producer on the remake as far back as 2001, when the proposed star of the film – R&B singer Aaliyah – was killed in a plane crash.
