By Brooks Welch

GRAMMY Award winning Mary J. Blige is in the works with Lifetime to executive produce a movie inspired by her 90s R&B hit ‘Real Love.’

According to Variety, “Real Love” was Blige’s first song to hit the Top 10 and was certified gold two months after its release in 1992. The song was produced by Cory Rooney and Mark Morales.

According to Deadline, the film, written by Sonja Warfield and Rachel Ingram, is a coming-of-age romantic drama centering around Kendra, who sets off on her own for the first time to a college in upstate New York, determined to focus on her studies. But when she meets her film class partner Ben, she tries her hardest to keep things professional. Despite disapproving parents, financial hardship, and competition for the top spot in class, Kendra and Ben find themselves falling hard for each other and ultimately learn the meaning of real love.

In a statement released Wednesday, Blige said, “I wrote ‘Real Love’ based on my real life experiences and my fans connected to it in a deeply personal way. 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,” The singer stated. “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.”

This isn’t the first of Blige’s producer credits. Last year she joined Queen Latifah and Missy Elliot to executive produce the Clark Sister’s Lifetime biopic ‘The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel’ in 2020. Also within the last year, Blige executive produced her acclaimed Amazon Prime documentary ‘Mary J. Blige’s My Life.’ Blige recently performed at the Super Bowl Halftime Show with Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar.

The premiere date for ‘Real Love’ has yet to be released.