- Last month, Netflix and Prince’s estate announced Ezra Edelman’s documentary on the “Purple Rain” singer would be shelved in favor of something different
- Now, Edelman is opening up about his feelings on the matter
- “I worked really hard making something, and now my art’s being stifled and thrown away,” he told the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast
The director of Netflix’s scrapped Prince documentary is speaking out.
After the streaming service and Prince’s estate announced Ezra Edelman’s long-in-the-works film would be shelved in favor of a different documentary on the “Purple Rain” singer last month, the Oscar-winning filmmaker reacted to the news in a March 4 appearance on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast.
“It’s a joke,” declared Edelman, 50, whom The New York Times previously reported was approached by Netflix in 2019 to make the film and told he and the streamer would have the final cut, while Prince’s estate would have the chance to review footage for factual accuracy.
“The estate, here’s the one thing they were allowed to do: Check the film for factual inaccuracies. Guess what? They came back with a 17-page document full of editorial issues — not factual issues,” he said. “You think I have any interest in putting out a film that is factually inaccurate?”
Edelman claimed the estate’s concerns are in regards to “who has control” over the contents of the documentary.
“This is reflective of Prince himself, who was notoriously one of the most famous control freaks in the history of artists,” he added. “The irony being that Prince was somebody who fought for artistic freedom, who didn’t want to be held down by Warner Bros., who he believed was stifling his output. And now, in this case — by the way, I’m not Prince, but I worked really hard making something, and now my art’s being stifled and thrown away.”
He expressed feeling as though Netflix is “afraid” of the “Let’s Go Crazy” artist’s “humanity,” adding that it’s “galling” to witness “the short-sightedness of a group of people whose interest is their own bottom line.”
“The lawyer who runs the estate essentially said he believed that this would do generational harm to Prince,” said Edelman. “In essence, that the portrayal of Prince in this film — what people learn about him — would deter younger viewers and fans, potentially, from loving Prince. They would be turned off.”
He added, “This is, I think, the big issue here: I’m like, ‘This is a gift — a nine-hour treatment about an artist that was, by the way, f—ing brilliant.’ Everything about who you believe he is is in this movie. You get to bathe in his genius. And yet you also have to confront his humanity, which he, by the way, in some ways, was trapped in not being able to expose because he got trapped in his own myth about who he was to the world, and he had to maintain it.”
In 2023, The New York Times sent reporter Sasha Weiss to a screening of Edelman’s film, which she described as a detailed portrait of Prince’s music and career, including the darker sides of his personal life, which he kept private until his death in 2016 at age 57 of an accidental overdose. The documentary featured both vault footage and interviews with more than 70 people.
The film reportedly touched on the devastating loss of Prince’s infant son with ex-wife Mayte Garcia and his difficult childhood — and featured an interview with a former girlfriend who alleged physical abuse. One scene saw his ex-partner Jill Jones recounting a 1984 evening when punched her in the face repeatedly, per the outlet.
Netflix and Prince’s estate announced the film would be shelved in favor of something different on Feb. 7.
“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. As a result, the Netflix documentary will not be released,” a statement read.
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