Producers of Lifetime's forthcoming Aaliyah biopic have cast the roles of the late singer's musical mentors.
According to TheWrap, Chattrisse Dolabaille and Izaak Smith have been cast as producer-rappers Missy Elliott and Timbaland, respectively.
Dolabaille, who is new to Hollywood, has a background as a Canadian actress, singer and dancer.
Smith, in contrast, was a contender on So You Think You Can Dance Canada and has made appearances in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Mirror Mirror as a dancer.
He also starred as Cal Rice on popular Canadian series, Tower Prep, and Danny on digital series Totally Amp'd.
In addition to Dolabaille and Smith, the production has cast Rachael Crawford and Sterling Jarvis as Aaliyah's parents Diane and Michael Haughton; Lyriq Bent as her uncle and president of her label, Barry Hankerson; Anthony Grant as Damon Dash; and A.J. Saudin and Jesse Sukunda will play the older and younger version of Aaliyah's brother Rashad, respectively.
The film will be produced by Aaliyah Productions, Inc., with Wendy Williams, Howard Braunstein (The Informant!) and Debra Martin Chase (Sparkle) executive producing.
Bradley Walsh (Turn the Beat Around) is directing. The script was written by Michael Elliot (Brown Sugar). It is filming this summer for a fall premiere.
The working title for the television movie is Aaliyah: Princess of R&B and is based on the bestselling book Aaliyah: More Than a Woman by former Time music editor Christopher Farley.
As previously reported, Disney star Zendaya dropped out of the film's leading role back in June.
Denying rumors that she could not handle the initial criticism of her casting, Zendaya said lack of production value and music rights were the main reasons she exited the cast.
Alexandra Shipp was later cast as Aaliyah.
