‘Sparkle’ Trailer: For People Who Didn’t Think ‘Dreamgirls’ Was Glossy Enough

By  · Published on April 3rd, 2012

If, for whatever reason, Bill Condon’s Dreamgirls didn’t strike you as a shiny enough spectacle, here comes Salim Akil’s remake of Sparkle, which tells essentially the same story as Dreamgirls, though the film’s first trailer resembles a glossy music video devoid of any of the top-notch performance or actual drama that made Dreamgirls even remotely watchable. Alas, the film does feature a number of interesting actors (including Jordin Sparks in her first feature, Mike Epps, and Derek Luke), and what will likely end up the film’s big selling point ‐ the final performance of Whitney Houston.

The original Sparkle hit screens in 1976, thanks to director Sam O’Steen and writers Joel Schumacher (really) and Howard Rosenman, with music composed by Curtis Mayfield and no less than Aretha Franklin singing the songs for the film’s soundtrack. The film was loosely based on the story of The Supremes, featuring singing sisters who hit it big in the 1950s, until they fell prey to all the VH1 Behind the Music stuff like drugs and internal strife. Oh, yeah, and Sparkle is one of the most direct inspirations of the Broadway musical that went on to become Dreamgirls. But this is all pretty evident in the film’s first trailer.

Shiny! Glittery! Sing-y!

Sparkle opens on August 17. [Yahoo! Movies]

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