Last month, Netflix canceled Ezra Edelman’s 9-hour Prince documentary, “The Book of Prince,” which in turn led to the streamer greenlighting an estate-approved doc on the late musician. Prince’s estate had previously stated that the doc was “dramatic” and filled with “sensationalized” inaccuracies about the late singer.
In his first major interview, since the nixing of his doc, Edelman is now slamming the decision as a “joke,” and warns about the demise of celebrity docs. Bluntly adding, “You think I have any interest in putting out a film that’s factually inaccurate?” He went on to criticize the recent Netflix trend of celebritiy docs as “sanitized” and “slop.”
The director, who admits to be being “devastated” by the turn of events. noted that the “one thing” the estate was allowed to do was flag his film for factual errors, but they came back with “a 17-page document full of editorial issues, not factual issues.”
Edelman confided that the thing he found most “galling” was the “short-sightedness of a group of people whose interest is their own bottom line.” He claimed that the “lawyer who runs the estate” believed the film “would do generational harm to Prince” and “deter younger viewers and fans, potentially, from loving Prince.”
“The Book of Prince” included allegations that Prince repeatedly punched in the face his protégé and former partner Jill Jones, among other alleged incidents. Showbiz411’s Roger Friedman previously reported that Edelman’s doc “concentrated on Prince’s sex and drugs but not on his rock and roll,” and that was a major dealbreaker.
“I’m not Prince, but I worked really hard making something, and now my art is being stifled and thrown away,” Edelman said of his shelved documentary.
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 had the potential to be something special, but we’ll now never get to know what Edelman concocted.
Still no distributor for "Bucking Fastard," "Alpha Gang," "The Last Photograph," "Closing Night," and "The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd." The issue seems to be quality more than a lack of willingness to buy.