( CNN ) -- `` Liz and Dick '' had nothing on this Lifetime movie . Like that previous Lifetime attempt , viewers on Twitter loved to hate `` Aaliyah : The Princess of R & B . '' Fans of the late singer were none too pleased with it , and it 's little wonder that her family reportedly provided no support to it ( none of her original songs were in the film either ) . Original star Zendaya Coleman backed out of the movie earlier this year , saying it all seemed `` a little rushed . '' One of her producers , Timbaland , made no bones about his dissatisfaction with the movie as well . Aaliyah had a very successful recording career , singing many hits before her tragic death at age 22 in a 2001 plane crash . The biopic -- especially some of the casting -- was seen as so bad that it spawned at least two hashtags , `` # LifetimeBeLike '' and `` # LifetimeBiopic . '' Below , a few good examples of the many , many tweets on the topic . Before the biopic aired , producers defended it . The Washington Post reported that executive producers Howard Braunstein and Debra Martin Chase , as well as Christopher Farley , the author of `` Aaliyah : More Than a Woman , '' on which the movie was based , said it was their goal to present a tasteful tribute to the late singer . `` Biopics are hard , '' Chase said . `` People have an opinion and social media allows them to voice that opinion . But at the end of the day , our goal was to make the best movie possible . '' Tell us what you thought about the movie in the comments .
NEW : TV defended the film . HBO 's TV - movie about late singer Beyoncé received widespread disdain on Twitter . Critics criticized the film , which they felt was all wrong . Aaliyah 's family gave no support to the film .