The Queen of Soul's story is coming. Here's everything we know about the Aretha Franklin movie, Respect.

It's a rare movie that will have you up on your feet dancing at the same time that tears are streaming down your face.  

But the new film Respect does just that.     

Then again, what else could we expect from a movie that so passionately chronicles the life of the legendary Aretha Franklin, who was rightly crowned the Queen of Soul.

Respect stars Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson as Aretha, portraying the award-winning musician from her early days as an aspiring singer who had suffered many great losses, through to her glory days as a musical powerhouse who was also a fierce advocate for equality.

Along with her own impressive vocals, which made her a star on both stage and screen, Jennifer Hudson completely sinks into the role, with everything from her movements, to the expressions on her face and the way she plays the piano completely falling in line with the legend that was Aretha Franklin.

Take a look at the trailer for Respect, starring Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin. Post continues below.

But her portrayal is more than just a mere mimic of Aretha, because watching Jennifer Hudson in Respect makes it clear that the actress has an innate understanding of who Aretha was behind her iconic performances.

And she brings every bit of that nuance to her performance, showing the audience exactly why the late Aretha Franklin handpicked Jennifer to portray her in this film, before she sadly passed away at the age of 76 in 2018.

Image: Universal Pictures.

As Respect chronicles, Aretha Franklin first harnessed the power of her voice when she was a child by singing gospel at a baptist church in Michigan, where her father was a minister and under the watchful eye of her mother who was herself an accomplished piano player and singer.

Sadly, her father's string of infidelities saw her parent's marriage end when she was still a child. In a tragic turn of events, her mother died of a heart attack when she was just ten years old. 

Leaving Aretha without one of her strongest supporters.

Throughout her teenage years, Aretha performed with her father on his gospel programs in major cities and was recognised as a vocal prodigy. At the age of just 18, she then embarked on a secular-music career as a recording artist for Columbia Records.

Unfortunately, despite her talents, her first shot at dominating the music industry was not a smooth road for her to travel, and in 1966 by the time her Columbia recording contract expired she actually owed the company money because her record sales had not met their high expectations.

She was then convinced to move to Atlantic Records, a place where she was finally allowed to sculpt her own musical identity.

One of her most iconic numbers, Respect was originally an Otis Redding song but Aretha changed it up and made it her own; putting her own spin on the emphatic spelling-out of the song’s title. The song reached number one on both the R&B and pop charts and later morphed into a civil rights and feminist anthem, two causes close to Aretha's heart. 

Aretha Franklin scored two additional top-ten singles in 1967 with Baby I Love You and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.

In 1987 Aretha Franklin became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin and Forest Whitaker as C. L. Franklin in Respect. Image: Universal Pictures. 

While the film Respect brilliantly charts Aretha's musical career, with some of its most compelling scenes showing Jennifer Hudson belting out her iconic songs, it also shines an important light on both her activism work and her personal life. 

In Respect, Jennifer and the film's creative team took special care to show Aretha as a dimensional person, documenting the singer's difficult struggles with alcoholism throughout her career and her abusive first marriage to Ted White (Marlon Wayans) at the age of just 19. 

Marlon Wayans as Aretha's husband Ted White in Respect. Image: Universal Pictures.

The film also takes special care to flesh out the relationship Aretha had with her parents, which so strongly shaped her career and life. The love and loss she felt for her mother Barbara Siggers Franklin (played by Broadway superstar Audra McDonald) and the complicated relationship she had with her father C. L. Franklin (played by Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker) who pushes his daughter's career aspirations. 

Often, biographical films can miss the mark when it comes to fully capturing their subject's stories. They can often leave out the darker moments or focus too hard on one particular moment in time.

Respect does neither of these things, perfectly capturing Aretha at her most complicated and brilliant at all aspects of her life, from motherhood to career, to relationships and family dynamics.

In fact, Aretha Franklin’s youngest son Kecalf Franklin, who has seen an advance screening of Respect, gave the film his family's seal of approval, writing on his Facebook account, "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. Our hopes are that everyone will enjoy the film as much as we did!"

Respect is not just a fitting tribute to the life of Aretha Franklin, but is also a powerfully entertaining film that will leave you with goosebumps. 

Respect will be released in cinemas on August 19.