Trivia / Sparkle

• In Memoriam: The 2012 remake is dedicated to Whitney Houston, who played Emma and infamously drowned in her bathtub in February 2012.
• Playing Against Type: Funnyman Mike Epps does play a comedian, but his character Satin is a self-hating black man who got rich by telling jokes that are insulting to black people, and he's an abusive husband to Sister.
• Saved from Development Hell: The rights to the remake were bought by Whitney Houston's production company in the mid 90s, and Aaliyah was intended as the lead. However, after Aaliyah's death in a plane crash in 2001, the film was not produced. In 2011, Mara Brock Akil and Salim Akil, the producers of Jumping the Broom and Girlfriends, took on Sparkle as their next project (with Jordin Sparks in the lead and Houston as her mother) and filming ended in November 2011. The movie was released on August 17, 2012 (sadly, Houston had passed away earlier that year).