Sony Pictures has announced a release date for the Sparkle remake, which stars Jordin Sparks, Whitney Houston, Carmen Ejogo, Tika Sumpter, Derek Luke, Mike Epps, and others, shepherded by Salim and Mara Brock Akil.

The film, which will feature original music from R. Kelly, will hit theaters on August 10, 2012.

As already noted, our understanding is that this Sparkle will not be a modern re-telling of the original version, as we initially thought, but rather will be set in the 1960s, which I find baffling. How will it differentiate itself from the original, or even from the recent Dreamgirls (2006)? And if it's just a rehashing of the original, but with a different set of actors, what's the point?

All questions that I hope will be answered eventually, as the film's release date draws near.

Principal photography is supposed to have wrapped already, so I suspect we'll get a first look at the film soon enough.