Prince documentary director describes decision to shelve the project as a “joke”

Posted On March 5, 2025March 5, 2025

Ezra Edelman, the director of the cancelled Prince documentary, has spoken out for the first time and branded Netflix’s decision to shelve the project a “joke”.

This latest instalment in the saga of the documentary comes after the streaming platform pulled the plug on Edelman’s nine hour, six-part series last month, following a legal dispute with Prince’s estate.

Now, the director has voiced his opinion on the matter during an appearance on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast, lambasting Netflix for axing the show and claiming that the musician’s estate, when given the opportunity to point out factual discrepancies, instead returned “a 17-page document full of editorial issues, not factual issues.”

Edelman added: “You think I have any interest in putting out a film that’s factually inaccurate?”. The Oscar-winning director then criticised Prince’s estate because he believed that they did not want the singer’s “humanity” to be depicted on screen, stating, “Everything about who you believe he is, is in this movie.”

Prince was notoriously guarded about his private life, and since his death in 2016, his estate has gone to great lengths to maintain this. When the documentary was initially cancelled, the producers branded it “sensationalised” and full of “dramatic” factual inaccuracies. However, due to the family’s control of the vault of unseen footage, the project could ultimately go no further.

Edelman explained that in the programme, “You get to bathe in his genius. And yet you also have to confront his humanity, which he, by the way, in some ways, was trapped in not being able to expose, because he got trapped in his own myth about who he was to the world, and he had to maintain it.”

After the documentary’s cancellation was announced, Netflix said it would create a new, different show based on “exclusive content from Prince’s archive.”

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