Snyder native Tanner Beard serves as executive producer of Whitney Houston biopic

The last two Christmases have been pretty good for Tanner Beard.

Last year, shooting officially wrapped on "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," the Whitney Houston biopic, which Beard served as the executive producer on. This past Friday (Dec. 23), the film was officially released in movie theaters around the country.

For the Snyder native, the film presented a unique challenge in staying true to Houston's story — from her rise to superstardom to her tragic death in 2012 at the age of 48 — while staying in the lines of reasonable time for a motion picture.

"I hope that one day I even get to see the original version before they actually started cutting it down for theatrical release," Beard told the Avalanche-Journal, "... It's tight, man. It's compact, but I think you get a full version of Whitney's story in this one and a version that you've never seen before."

Houston is portrayed by Naomi Ackie, a 30-year-old British actress whose previous work includes a role in "Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker." Beard said he had to remind himself of Ackie's background for her role as the intrepid singer.

"You're talking about somebody who just completely immersed themselves in this character," Beard said. "She did phenomenal, but I think a lot of the audience is going to take away just the performances essentially. And the music, being reminded of how many great songs Whitney Houston had. I've even forgotten. I was even in the theater seeing it for the first time recently myself and was like 'Oh, yeah. I forgot she sang that.' So it was a lot of fun. I think the performances are gonna blow people's minds."

The film was written by Anthony McCarten, who also wrote the Freddie Mercury/Queen biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody." That should clue audiences in on what to expect from the film, namely a lot of the hit songs Houston is known for.

The seminal scene in "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a remake of Queen's Live Aid performance from 1985. "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" has a similar scene as the film recreated Houston's iconic national anthem performance from the 1991 Super Bowl.

"I know it was freezing cold that night of the national anthem scene," Beard said, "Because that was actually shot at Foxboro Stadium (home of the New England Patriots) and it was below zero. Then everybody's putting coats back on in between takes."

The film is now in theaters throughout the country.