Mary J. Blige has teamed up with Lifetime to executive produce a movie inspired by one of her most popular songs.
The romantic drama will tell the story of a girl named Kendra who falls deeply for her film class partner Ben while pursuing her undergraduate career at a college in upstate New York. The couple fights through “disapproving parents, financial hardship, and competition for the top spot in class” and ultimately learns the true definition of love, hence the reason it’s been titled after Blige’s iconic hit “Real Love.”
“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 on Wednesday (March 2). “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. I am grateful to Lifetime for their partnership in the story of Real Love.”
Blige’s forthcoming movie marks yet another collaboration with Lifetime as she executive produced “The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel” and played the role of Dr. Betty Shabazz in the civil rights biopic “Betty & Coretta.”
It will also be the second film named after one of her many albums. Her documentary My Lifedropped on Amazon Prime over the summer. Per the synopsis, it gives fans insight into “the demons and blessings” behind the record.
“My Life is probably my darkest album at one of the darkest times I’ve had,” she said in the trailer. “Most of the time, I was just depressed and didn’t want to live. I had it all inside and I was able to sing it and write it, and I didn’t know that so many people felt the same way.”
As of now, there is no release date for Blige’s Real Love. The drama, however, will feature music from the singer as part of the goal to “bring more stories to life with music as the foundation.”