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Howard Rosenman, the producer-writer of the original 1976 “Sparkle” and executive producer of Sony’s 2012 remake starring Whitney Houston, tells The Hollywood Reporterthat a novelization of the movie’s story was sold six weeks ago to Simon & Schuster.

The book will be released Aug. 7, 10 days before the film opens.

The forthcoming “Sparkle” remake has generated heightened interest following the death of Houston, who plays mom to a group of young girl singers (one played by Jordin Sparks) trying to make it big

Rosenman revealed that Houston was influenced by the original movie as a girl and once went to see it every day for a week when she was a teenager. It apparently helped plant the dream in her to become a singer.

When the new version was coming together, Rosenman brought up the idea to her of playing the girls’ mother — and she loved it. She has two musical numbers in the film and on the soundtrack.

Rosenman also is teaming with Joel Schumacher to add five new songs to those by Curtis Mayfield (in the original) and R. Kelly (in the 2012 version) for a full-blown Broadway musical interpretation of “Sparkle.”

Sony, sensing potential for the film’s numbers after Houston’s sudden death in February, sent a lot of notes to “Sparkle” director Salim Akil, whose wife Mara Brock Akil penned the screenplay. Unfortunately, at that time, Akil was close to a final cut of the film.

article courtesy of Eurweb.com

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