Posted by Mary J. Blige’s return to the spotlight has been remarkable. The Queen of Hip Hop soul has a starring role in 50 Cent’s popular series Power Book II: Ghost, performed at the Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show and dropped her 14th studio album but she’s not done bringing in the W’s.
On Wednesday (March 2), Lifetime announced they’re releasing a new film titled Real Love. The film is based on Mary’s 1992 breakthrough single “Real Love” and will have the nine-time Grammy Award-winning singer serving as an executive producer.
The coming-of-age drama follows an intellectual student named Kendra, who begins her college career in upstate New York, where she meets her film class partner Ben, who ends up changing her whole world around. Despite all the issues they go through in the film, the two fall for each other and learn what love is.
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The film will be written by Sonja Warfield and Rachel Ingram with Ashaunna Ayars and Nicole Jackson serving as executive producers alongside Mary J. Blige. The R&B legend explained in a statement how important the record was to her early in her career.
“I wrote ‘Real Love’ based on my real-life experiences and my fans connected to it in a deeply personal way,” Blige said in a statement. “It’s exciting to now use this song and my music to create a new story by way of film, continuing to build on a pillar of the foundation of my production company, Blue Butterfly. My passions for acting and music now include developing diverse stories with music as the backdrop.”
Tanya Lopez, EVP of scripted content at Lifetime, said, “Mary is one of those phenomenal talents that can do it all. We are so thrilled to be able to partner with her again on this new opportunity to bring her music to life in the form of a movie that we know audiences will love.”
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This isn’t the first time Mary was an executive producer for a Lifetime film. She handled the duties for the 2020 film The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel starring Queen Latifah and Missy Elliott, and her 2021 Amazon Studios documentary, Mary J. Blige’s My Life.