Prince estate and Netflix cut ties on documentary

MINNEAPOLIS — A nine-hour documentary exploring the life of Prince will not be released on Netflix, and a new film will be produced by the Prince estate.

A statement posted on the official Prince Facebook page Thursday said the following: 

“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 30-second video was posted on Prince’s official X page Thursday with accompanying text saying “The Vault Has Been Freed. #FREE.”

Oscar-winning filmmaker Ezra Edelman had worked for nearly five years on the documentary exploring every facet of Prince’s humanity, from his genius to his flaws.

Sasha Weiss, a deputy editor for the New York Times Magazine, has spent around one-and-a-half years reporting on the film’s creation, and its shelving. She says Prince’s estate changed leadership while it was being made. 

“Nobody from the estate spoke with me on the record, but my sense is that they don’t like this really complicated, checkered, sometimes negative portrayal of Prince,” she said during an interview with WCCO in January.   

Weiss says Edelman interviewed more than 70 people for the documentary. 

Charles Spicer with Prince Legacy, one of the companies that owns Prince’s estate, tweeted in September, “Would you be OK with a director putting explicit coroner photos of your loved one in a documentary? #showsomedignityandrespect.”