The actress taking on Whitney Houston in the upcoming biopic has been announced

Following the success of Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman, a Whitney Houston biopic is on the way!

And now director Stella Meghie has found her Whitney!

British actress Naomi Ackie will be taking on the role of the legendary singer in the upcoming biopic titled I Wanna Dance With Somebody ... and she has some pretty big shoes to fill.

The 28-year-old won a Bafta TV Award earlier this year for her performance in the series The End of the F***ing World.

She has also appeared in Doctor Who and played Jannah in 2019 film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

In a statement, Meghie said: "We spent the better part of the last year in an exhaustive search for an actress who could embody Whitney Houston.

"Naomi Ackie impressed us at every stage of the process. I was moved by her ability to capture the stage presence of a global icon while bringing humanity to her interior life."

The film, which the late singer's estate has given its support to, has got Bohemian Rhapsody screenwriter Anthony McCarten on board to pen the script.

McCarten is a specialist in writing movies about historical figures, earning Oscar nominations for The Theory of Everything, Darkest Hour and The Two Popes, as well as Bohemian Rhapsody.

McCarten has vowed to "authentically" tell the late singer's story, following her death in 2012 aged 48.

He said in a statement: "We are incredibly lucky to have the support and input of many of the key people who knew Whitney the best and who were there at the time, in the making of this film.

"I am working closely with all of them, to authentically tell the extraordinary story of a peerless talent, taken from us too soon."

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Music producer Clive Davis - who mentored the 'I Will Always Love You' hitmaker on her rise to fame - said he was "very disappointed" with two documentaries (2017's Whitney: Can I Be Me and 2018's Whitney) about the superstar, but believes that Whitney's full story will be allowed come through in this movie.

He said: "From all my personal and professional experience with Whitney from her late teenage years to her tragic premature death, I know the full Whitney Houston story has not yet been told.

"I am so glad that Anthony McCarten has committed to a no-holds-barred, musically-rich screenplay that finally reveals the whole Whitney whose vocal genius deeply affected the world while she fiercely battled the demons that were to be her undoing."

Over the course of a musical career spanning more than 30 years, the songstress sold more than 200 million records worldwide and won six Grammys, 16 Billboard Music Awards, and two Emmys.