Ezra Edelman offers his version of events following the scrapping of his Prince documentary for Netflix, arguing people are being served “slop.”
Last month we covered the story regarding Netflix’s scrapping of a nine-hour documentary film charting the life and career of Prince, the pop icon who passed away in 2016 at the age of 57.
Award-winning documentarian Ezra Edelman had worked on a Prince film for Netflix which the musician’s estate seemingly objected to. Ultimately, Edelman saw his film scrapped as Netflix announced that it would instead be commissioning a new documentary – presumably with a more sanitised take on the singer’s life which will gain the approval of his estate.
Edelman didn’t comment last month when news of the film’s cancellation surfaced, but he has spoken out since, calling the decision “a joke” on Pablo Torre Finds Out. Offering his version of events, Edelman claims that Prince’s estate overstepped its boundaries, stating:
“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?”
He also said that he feels people are being served “slop.”
After refusing to make the changes the estate requested, the Oscar-winning director of OJ Simpson: Made In America was removed from the project, with Edelman stating that the singer’s estate is “afraid of Prince’s humanity.”
In a sustained criticism of those who shut the project down, Edelman went on to accuse them of being motivated purely by financial interest.
You do wonder how things got to this point. Surely Edelman and Netflix conveyed the direction of the project to the singer’s estate. But without knowing the full details, it’s impossible to know exactly how the expectations of the filmmaker and the estate became so polarised. Either way, that miscommunication seems to be the cause of huge frustration to Edelman.
The full piece can be found at The Hollywood Reporter.
