Producers defended Lifetime's Aaliyah biopic before it aired

Lifetime's biopic "Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B" has been controversial since its inception, with the late singer's family expressing their disapproval of the project and withholding rights to her songs.Since its debut on Saturday night, many critics, including Aaliyah's former mentor and music producer Timbaland, who is depicted in the film, responded with outrage.

Timbaland took to Instagram last night and this morning, to air his grievances with the film, which chronicles the untimely death of R&B star Aaliyah Haughton, who died in 2011 — at the height of her stardom — in a plane crash in the Bahamas. The film is based on the biography "Aaliyah: More than a Woman" by former Time music editor Christopher John Farley. "A lotta people keep asking me if I'm watching that (expletive)," Timbaland said in a video posted to Instagram. "Evidently not. No way. Not Timbo."

He continued to criticize the film throughout the night. "This is why people should never remake movies. (Expletive) happens. Now you have to deal with the consequences," Timbaland said in another video.

Timbaland and Missy Elliott worked closely with Aaliyah, including on her second album, "One In A Million," which they produced. It sold 8 million copies worldwide.

In a third message, seemingly directed at the film's executive producers — Howard Braunstein, Debra Martin Chase and Wendy Williams — the 42-year-old said "they will feel my wrath tomorrow morning."

He made good on his promise today, posting several memes on Instagram mocking the Lifetime production and those affiliated with it. One meme called out talk show host Williams specifically. It reads: "Wendy Williams you know you (expletive) up right?"

Williams, in a recent interview with NJ Advance Media, said Aaliyah's story was one that needed to be told.

"The family doesn't want the story to be told but we're doing it anyway. It's not told in a seedy tasteless way," Williams said. Aaliyah's family members have said they believe her story should be told on a larger stage.

Williams said she was offered the role of co-executive producer after being critical of the project on a "Hot Topics" segment of "The Wendy Williams Show."

"In my opinion, we did a great job telling the story that the family was scared to put out there," Williams said.

Not everyone agrees. Like Timbaland, many fans of the singer have expressed their disappointment with the film on social media, accusing Lifetime of romanticizing Aaliyah's relationship with R. Kelly, whom she illegally married when she was 15 and Kelly was 27. Fans also took issue with the film's casting. Disney star Zendaya Coleman was originally cast in the title role, but dropped out in June. (She would later say she didn't feel like the film "was all the way there.") Coleman was replaced by Alexandra Shipp. Chattrisse Dolabaille and Izaak Smith, who portrayed Aaliyah's mentors, Missy Elliott and Timbaland, also were criticized as being too thin and light in complexion.

"My people have a problem with complexion," Williams said in a recent interview with NJ Advance Media of the early casting issues that plagued the production. Williams said she was more concerned with the acting abilities of those cast than she was with how closely they resembled the real life characters.

It's unlikely the talk show queen, a New Jersey native and Livingston resident, will respond to her critics.

"I do not do my own Twittering and Facebooking and stuff," Williams told NJ Advance Media. "Because I do have a slick mouth and I would probably jump on social media and sit there in the house blogging back and cursing people out and everything. But I wouldn't even know how to Facebook and guess what? It's better that way."