The Oscar-nominated screenwriter behind "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "The Two Popes" has been lined up to write and co-produce a new feature film on the life of Whitney Houston, US media reported Wednesday.

Anthony McCarten will join forces with the Whitney Houston estate and Grammy-award winner Clive Davis, the man who signed the star to her first recording contract, according to Deadline.

They are negotiating with Stella Meghie to direct the biopic "I Wanna Dance With Somebody", the website reported. Meghie retweeted the Deadline story.

McCarten, 58, has had a series of hits in recent years - all biopics. They include "The Dark Hours" (2017), "Bohemian Rhapsody" (2018), and "The Two Popes" (2019).

Houston, 48, whose hits included, "I Will Always Love You" and "Saving All My Love for You," drowned in her bathtub at a Beverly Hills hotel in 2012 on the eve of the Grammy Awards after taking cocaine. 

The singer had a well-chronicled and years-long battle with drug addiction.

Despite a career marked by drug addiction, she remains one of the great voices of R'n'B and popular music in the last 30 years.

Houston co-starred in the 1992 romantic thriller "The Bodyguard" and made several other movies. Since her death, the six-time Grammy winner has been the subject of several documentaries but the feature film is the first approved version of her life.

"I know the full Whitney Houston story has not yet been told," Davis told Deadline, describing the screenplay as "no holds barred, musically rich".

Musical biopics have surged in popularity in the past two years thanks to the success of "Bohemian Rhapsody" - the story of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury which won four Oscars in 2019 - and Elton John's rise to fame in "Rocketman."

No casting or release date of the new biographical film was announced.

(With input from agencies)