Kecalf Franklin (Photo: Facebook)
Aretha Franklin's son — who has previously inspired Free Press headlines such as "Aretha Franklin's son blasts Jennifer Hudson's Queen of Soul movie" (Jan. 7, 2020) and "Aretha Franklin's son puts upcoming 'Genius' series on blast, says family does not support" (Feb. 15, 2021) — now has a different opinion about a project featuring his late legendary mother.
Today in the Free Press, we learn Kecalf Franklin has now "co-signed" the project featuring Jennifer Hudson, MGM's "Respect" due out Aug. 13. What changed? Well, he saw the movie, for one, and says in a Facebook post that the studio was "extremely professional" in its presentation. Previously, he contended MGM had not reached out to key family members during production.
"How can you make a movie about a person and not talk to the person's sons or grandchildren about important information?" he wrote in all caps on Facebook at the time. (He had a similar response to the "Genius" series by National Geographic, writing in all caps on Facebook that a deal was “pushed through without our consent.”)
The film now draws lower-case enthusiasm from Kecalf who, following an exclusive screening for the Franklin family, posts "Jennifer Hudson did a phenomenal job as well as the rest of the cast. We truly thank you all for providing your GOD given talents to depict our mother/grandmothers’ life story. Thank you all so much and GOD bless you."
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