Prince estate blocks release of Netflix documentary by Oscar-winning director Ezra Edelman

The estate of the late funk superstar Prince has successfully blocked the release of a nine-hour Netflix documentary about him, made by the Oscar-winning creator of OJ: Made in America.

Netflix said in a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune: “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 film, which was completed but untitled, was made by Ezra Edelman, who won an Academy Award and Emmy for the eight-hour 2016 film OJ: Made in America, which told the story of the life and criminal trial of OJ Simpson.

Edelman, who spent five years making his Prince film, was originally granted unprecedented access to Prince’s archives – known as The Vault – by the estate following an undisclosed multimillion-dollar deal. He was told the estate, which was then being administered by a bank, would not exert editorial control over the film (as recounted in a New York Times article in September 2024). The film features a number of people close to Prince, including former bandmates, managers, girlfriends and one of his sisters.

But in 2022, after Prince’s estate changed administration to some of his heirs, associates and the company Primary Wave, the new owners moved to block Edelman from accessing The Vault. The Netflix executive who commissioned the film then left the company, and after seeing the film, the estate reportedly made a series of demands for cuts and reshoots.

Sources speaking to Variety claimed the estate found the film to be “sensationalised” and had factual inaccuracies. Music producer Charles Spicer, a member of the estate, wrote on X in 2024: “We have a duty to honor and protect his legacy with a story that fairly shows his complexities as well as his greatness. #no9hourhitjob”.

Now the film’s release has been cancelled, the estate has taken a triumphant tone on social media, sharing the same statement as Netflix as well as a new video captioned “The Vault has been freed”, showing footage of Prince alongside two quotes by him: “Despite everything, no one can dictate who you are to other people,” and: “The truth is, you’re either here to enlighten or discourage.”

Londell McMillan, a member of the estate and the lawyer who negotiated on its behalf, called the decision “a big, big win for Prince’s legacy”. He said the estate’s planned documentary would be “an in-depth piece that explores the complexities of the brilliant musical genius”.

The author of the New York Times article, Sasha Weiss, saw Edelman’s film and called it a “cursed masterpiece”, saying it “shows, more movingly and convincingly than almost anything I’ve seen, how life can illuminate art, and yet how separate the two things really are”.

Weiss describes a scene that features Prince’s former girlfriend Jill Jones alleging a physical assault by him against her. She also reports scenes that describe his dependence on pain medication, and feature criticism of certain lyrics as antisemitic.

The musician and Oscar-winning film-maker Questlove features in the film, and told Weiss after seeing it: “It was a heavy pill to swallow when someone that you put on a pedestal is normal. Everything’s here: he’s a genius, he’s majestical, he’s sexual, he’s flawed, he’s trash, he’s divine, he’s all those things … I saw this as a rare, rare, rare chance for [Black men] to look human to the world.”