Aaliyah film defended

The director of a film starring dead singer Aaliyah, whose release is going ahead despite her death, has defended the production.

Queen of the Damned features the late pop star as a beautiful vampire brought back from the dead to prey on the living and is being marketed with pictures of the singer in a metal bikini.

The £24m (€39m) film was almost completed when Aaliyah died in a plane crash in the Bahamas on August 25, and director Michael Rymer used her brother Rashad Haughton’s voice to finish the production.