Netflix has parted ways with the Prince estate over a controversial nine-hour documentary about the late music superstar.
Directed by Ezra Edelman, who won an Academy Award and two Emmys for the eight-hour 2016 ESPN film “OJ: Made in America,” the completed but untitled project will not be launched on the streaming platform as previously planned.
“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,” both entities announced in a joint statement.
Prince performs onstage in 1986. (Getty)
Following Prince’s death at 57 in 2016, Edelman struck a reported multimillion dollar deal with Netflix and Comerica Bank, the interim executor of Prince’s estate. As part of the agreement, the filmmaker was given unprecedented access to the notoriously private musician’s archives with the promise that he’d retain creative control.
But things apparently went south when a nine-hour cut of the documentary made the early rounds, featuring some of the “Purple Rain” crooner’s ex-lovers accusing him of physical and emotional abuse.
New York Times Magazine reported that Prince’s former girlfriend Jill Jones alleged in the film that he physically assaulted her. The report also claimed that Edelman’s “cursed masterpiece” highlighted elements of Prince’s abusive childhood, his abandonment of wife Mayte Garcia after the death of their 6-day-old son, as well as the singer’s dependence on pain medication.
Publicly known for clean living, Prince died of an accidental fentanyl overdose amid a cloud of mystery.
Last July, following four years of production on the documentary, sources told Variety the project was “dead in the water” after representatives for the artist’s estate claimed the first cut was filled with “dramatic” inaccuracies and “sensationalized” versions of events.
“Those with the responsibility of carrying out Prince’s wishes shall honor his creativity and genius,” the estate said in a statement the following September. “We are working to resolve matters concerning the documentary so that his story may be told in a way that is factually correct and does not mischaracterize or sensationalize his life. We look forward to continuing to share Prince’s gifts and celebrate his profound and lasting impact on the world.”
The news of the Netflix cancellation was celebrated by the Prince estate on Thursday with a video touting that the “vault has been freed,” along with the Prince quote: “Despite everything, no one can dictate who you are to other people.”