Bodyguard remake going ahead

Studio Warner Brothers will reportedly plough ahead with their remake of ‘The Bodyguard’, despite the tragic death of original star Whitney Houston.

According to industry blog Vulture, a script for the planned remake was delivered at the studio’s executive offices on Tuesday, just three days after Houston died.

[Related story: Sony apologise for Houston music price hike]
[Related feature: Hollywood's most mysterious deaths]

The paper arrived at the offices of producer Dan Lin (‘Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows’) who is developing a fresh approach to the movie.

This time around, the bodyguard will be an Iraq war veteran. The script will apparently incorporate social networks and celebrity journalism such as Twitter, gossip columns and TMZ.

Houston famously took the role of Rachel Marron, a singer who needed a bodyguard (Kevin Costner) in the 1992 smash hit. It made over £260 million at the box office.

Initial plans to remake the classic romantic drama first surfaced in February 2011 with writers Jeremiah Friedman and Nick Palmer given orders to pen the script.

Warner Brothers announced that Houston’s character would be played by a “young female singer with global appeal” in the reboot.

Pop-star-turned-actress Rihanna has been tipped to star in the remake. She will make her movie debut in this year’s ‘Battleship’.

Channing Tatum and Hugh Jackman have both dismissed reports that they are in line to play the bodyguard, the role that Costner filled 20 years ago.

Similarly, Fox’s plans for a sequel to ‘Waiting to Exhale’ could have stalled after Houston’s sudden death last weekend, but the studio says it’s still going ahead.

Author Terry McMillan published a second installment to the story, ‘Getting to Happy’, in September 2010, which Fox immediately bought the rights for. Houston was originally going to reprise her role as  Savannah Jackson from the first film.

Vulture reports that new writers are about to be hired, and will be supervised by director Forest Whitaker.

Following the news of Houston’s death, Fox 2000 Pictures president Elizabeth Gabler said that it’s “almost in her honour that we think to soldier on.”