Whitney Houston classic 'The Bodyguard' is getting a Hollywood remake

The romantic thriller is set to be revived 30 years after its release, with a script by an Olivier Award-winning playwright

Whitney Houston in 'The Bodyguard', which is set to be remade 30 years after its release. Photo: Warner Bros

The 1992 film, The Bodyguard, that launched the acting career of the late Whitney Houston and featured her most famous song, is getting a reboot.

Hollywood movie studio Warner Bros said on Wednesday that a reimagining of the romantic thriller is in development with a script written by American playwright Matthew Lopez.

Lopez is the playwright behind the Olivier Award-winning The Inheritance, a two-part drama set a generation after the 1980s Aids epidemic, that opened on Broadway in 2019.

No details of casting, plot or a potential release date were given, but Warner Bros said that Lawrence Kasdan, the writer and producer of the 1992 film, will co-produce the new version.

Houston made her big-screen debut in The Bodyguard, playing a singer who is protected from an unknown stalker by a former Secret Service agent portrayed by Kevin Costner.

Despite being panned by critics at the time, it went on to become the second-biggest film at the worldwide box office in 1992, grossing more than $400 million, and Houston's rendition of Dolly Parton's ballad I Will Always Love You, which featured in the movie, became a classic.

The film's soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, while the featured tracks I Have Nothing and Run to You, performed by Houston, received nominations for Best Original Song Oscars.

Houston died aged 48 in 2012 after a long history of drug addiction.

The Bodyguard joins a string of Hollywood movies to get a recent reboot. Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper starred in a 2018 remake of A Star Is Born, and new versions of sci-fi classic Dune and musical West Side Story are due to be released later this year.

A musical adaptation of The Bodyguard first opened in London's West End in 2012, with the production embarking on several global tours, including stints in Australia, Canada and South Korea.