It’s a real shame that Netflix has now officially canceled Ezra Edelman’s mysterious Prince documentary. The film was ready for release, but the streamer just released a statement officially confirming the axing.
“The Prince Estate and Netflix have come to a mutual agreement that will allow the estate to develop and produce a new documentary featuring exclusive content from Prince’s archive,” Netflix said in a statement on Thursday. “As a result, the Netflix documentary will not be released.”
Prince’s estate has previously stated that the doc was “dramatic” and filled with “sensationalized” inaccuracies about the late singer. Edelman was said to be “devastated” by the turn of events.
Five years ago, Netflix had secured the rights to make the doc from the singer’s estate, but estate control then changed hands and the documentary was then blocked from being released.
Prince’s estate had actually found a loophole in their previous deal with Netflix, which stated that the doc could not be more than six hours in length. Edelman turned in a nine-hour cut, refusing to shorten the runtime.
Prince, a reclusive and mysterious musical genius, died of an accidental drug overdose at just 57 years old. Edelman hasn’t directed a film since his 2016 masterwork “OJ: Made in America.” This has the potential to be something special, but we’ll now never get to know what Edelman had concocted.
UPDATE: Showbiz411’s Roger Friedman is reporting that Edelman’s doc will be replaced by an authorized, and very sanitized, new Netflix doc. Apparently, Edelman’s film “concentrated on Prince’s sex and drugs but not on his rock and roll,” and that was a major dealbreaker.
Criterion's December lineup has some great additions to the library, but the title that jumped out at me is Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," which officially joins the Collection on December 8.