Netflix has shelved a Prince docuseries directed by Ezra Edelman; as an alternative, a brand new, estate-approved documentary has been introduced.
Edelman’s docuseries had been within the works for 5 years, and was slated to have a nine-hour runtime throughout six components. That includes footage from Prince’s archive, it was to incorporate interviews with lots of his pals, collaborators, enterprise companions, and lovers. However not all the challenge painted him in a great gentle — in accordance with a New York Instances Journal story from final yr, the collection described alleged bodily and emotional abuse dedicated by the artist.
Initially, Edelman’s movie was authorized by the Prince property when it was below completely different illustration (a circumstance that arose out of his absence of a will). However because the property modified palms in 2022, there had been an effort to tug the plug on the challenge. The aforementioned New York Instances Journal article reported that the property felt the movie “misrepresented” Prince, triggering a “protracted battle” with Netflix.
Now, it appears that evidently battle has led to victory for the property — this week, they issued a joint assertion with Netflix saying, “The Prince Property and Netflix have come to a mutual settlement that may enable the property to develop and produce a brand new documentary that includes unique content material from Prince’s archive. Consequently, the Netflix documentary is not going to be launched.”
Additional particulars on this “new documentary” are unknown at the moment, however the property did share a tweet on Thursday with the caption, “The Vault Has Been Freed,” and a quote from the artist, studying, “Regardless of all the things, nobody can dictate who you’re to different individuals.”
Among the many controversial content material included within the docuseries by Edelman (who beforehand directed O.J.: Made in America) had been interviews allegedly describing all the things from controlling conduct to bodily violence, manipulation, the failure to correctly help his then-wife Mayte Garcia after the loss of life of their youngster, and extra.
Edelman’s documentary additionally included constructive remembrances of Prince, and sought to inform his story in a complete method, as tough a activity because it was. Chatting with New York Instances Journal, Edelman lamented, “How are you going to inform the reality about somebody who, while you’re speaking to individuals, all of them had various things to say?”
The estate-approved documentary isn’t the one Prince movie on the way in which; Ryan Coogler is connected as a producer for a jukebox musical film that includes the late artist’s music. In the meantime, this previous weekend, the musician was posthumously awarded a lifetime achievement award from the Grammys.
The Vault Has Been Freed. #FREE pic.twitter.com/uvAbzEBbTc
— Prince (@prince) February 6, 2025