A sweeping, nine-hour-long documentary on Prince, which had been in production for six years, has been shelved by Netflix following conflicts with the late musician’s estate. Instead, the estate will now develop and produce a completely new documentary.
On Friday, February 7, Netflix and Prince’s estate released a joint statement confirming that Oscar-winning filmmaker Ezra Edelman’s long-anticipated film will not be released, and that they will shift focus to a new project.
“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,” the statement read.
Edelman was initially approached by Netflix in 2019 to direct the film, under the understanding that both he and Netflix would have final editorial control. However, Prince’s estate retained the right to review the documentary for factual accuracy, according to a report by The New York Times in September.
When the estate was finally presented with a cut of the film in 2023, attorney L. Londell McMillan, an administrator for the estate, provided Edelman with 17 pages of notes requesting changes, the Times reported. While Edelman agreed to some modifications, he rejected others.
Sasha Weiss, a reporter who attended the exclusive screening, described the film as a “cursed masterpiece.” It provided an in-depth look into Prince’s music and career while also exploring the more private and turbulent aspects of his life.
Prince, who passed away in 2016 at the age of 57 from an accidental overdose, had fiercely guarded his personal life. The documentary featured never-before-seen footage from Prince’s vault and interviews with over 70 individuals.
Edelman’s film reportedly delved into the heartbreaking loss of Prince’s infant son with ex-wife Mayte Garcia, his challenging childhood, and included an interview with a former girlfriend who alleged physical abuse.
One particularly controversial scene, involved ex-partner Jill Jones recounting an incident from 1984 in which Prince allegedly struck her multiple times.
A report in July suggested that after the screening, the project was considered “dead in the water,” as representatives from the estate deemed the film both factually inaccurate and excessively sensationalized.
Charles Spicer, a close friend of Prince and former business advisor who co-founded Prince Legacy LLC with some of the musician’s heirs, reportedly criticized the documentary on social media.
In a now-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter), Spicer stated, “We have a duty to honor and protect his legacy with a story that fairly shows his complexities as well as his greatness. #no9hourhitjob.”
Following the news that the documentary would not be moving forward, McMillan also shared his thoughts on X, stating that “anyone disparaging or slandering Prince has a problem with me.”
“He had human flaws, as we all do, but he was a great man, greatest artist ever, philanthropist, innovator, and he helped many people, including me,” McMillan wrote. “People can say what they want but won’t use his platform to do it.”
