Edelman was tapped as a replacement for the original director, Ava DuVernay, after Netflix and representatives of Comerica Bank, the interim executor for Prince’s estate, made a deal for the doc in 2018. He was given extensive access to Prince’s archives and spent five years making a nine-hour version of the film.

The changing nature of the documentary business has seen an influx of celebrities (and their representatives) producing their own series and films over the last few years. Ezra Edelman, the Oscar-winning director of ESPN’s O.

Ezra Edelman, the filmmaker behind the Prince documentary that Netflix has canceled, says the shelving of the nine-hour film is 'a joke.'