Add Roberta Flack to the list of legendary singers set to get a biopic.
The North Carolina native, who passed away earlier this year, will be the subject of a brand new scripted film from “Good Morning America” host Robin Roberts and her Rock’n Robin Productions.
Deadline was first to report the news.
Flack, best known for “Killing Me Softly,” the duets “The Closer I Get To You” and “Where Is The Love” with Donny Hathaway and “Feel Like Making Love,” became the first solo artist to win Record of the Year at the Grammys with “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face.” The song received new life when Clint Eastwood used it for his directorial debut, “Play Misty For Me” in 1971.
“Roberta was a trailblazer – powerful and purposeful with her music and intention. From the first note of every song, you feel Roberta’s tender heart and powerful soul through the microphone,” Roberts said. “She taught us that the softest voice can carry the deepest truth. It’s an honor to help share her remarkable life and legacy with a new generation, as her music continues to move and inspire the world.”
Roberts’ Rock’n Robin Productions secured the rights to Flack’s life story and will also develop a documentary based on her life. Roberts is working with Flack’s longtime managers, Suzanne Mina Koga and Joan Martin, for both the biopic and the documentary.
A classically trained pianist, Flack received a music scholarship to attend Howard University at the age of 15. Jazz musician Les McCann would discover her at a D.C. nightclub and immediately sign her to Atlantic Records. Along with the Grammy win for “The First Time I Saw Your Face” in 1972, Flack doubled back and won Record of the Year for the second consecutive year in 1973 for “Killing Me Softly,” a song famously covered by Lauryn Hill for The Fugees’ “The Score” album.
The project is the latest from Rock’n Robin Productions, which helmed specials and films such as “Hurricane Katrina: 20 Years After The Storm with Robin Roberts, Netflix’s “A King Like Me,” and “Lifetime’s I Will Survive: The Gloria Gaynor Story.”
Flack passed away in February from complications due to Lou Gehrig’s disease. She was 88.
