In the film, which Sony will release Aug. 17, the performer takes center stage for a big gospel number.

Whitney Houston's final film performance in the upcoming feature Sparkle "would have been a big, big comeback, she is so brilliant in it," Howard Rosenman, an executive producer on the film said Saturday in the wake of the performer's death.
Rosenman, who also provided the story for the original 1976 Sparkle, about the rise of an all-girl singing group loosely inspired by the Supremes, had seen a rough cut of the new feature, starring Jordin Sparks, on Friday night. "I was just raving about [Whitney's] performance, she was so great in it. I'm just in shock," he said.
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