A long-awaited Kevin Smith documentary about Prince is set to finally “see the light of day.” Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy) was given all access to the icon prior to his death from a fentanyl overdose in 2016.
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Smith spent hours talking to Prince at his Paisley Park Estate for the project and was allowed to roam freely in the house according to reports. Per an interview with The Guardian, Smith confirmed that the chances the film is released were “very high.”
He said, “The director of OJ: Made in America is making a documentary for Netflix, and came to the house to interview me. When they went to the vaults after Prince died, they found so much unreleased music and so many music videos, but the only footage of him talking was what I shot.”
He continued, “It’s extraordinary: he acts differently to how he ever acted in his entire life, and he talks for hours and hours. It looks like it’s finally going to see the light.”
Smith became involved in the project after trying to use one of Prince’s songs for another film he was working on at the time.
The director previously explained, “We were trying to get a Prince song for ‘Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back’ … we were trying to get Prince’s ‘The Most Beautiful Girl in the World’ but we couldn’t get any response back from him.”
Smith went on to explain that he later received a call from the musician, who explained he was a fan of Smith’s 1999 film Dogma. He then asked Prince if he would work with him on a concert film.
Prince reportedly replied, “I have this thing where I’m gonna debut my new album for a bunch of fans … I want to make a movie that we can bring to the Cannes Film Festival.”
In other Prince news, his family reached an agreement over the division of his $156 million estate earlier this year. The musician did not have a will at the time of his death and with no spouse or children, his entire estate was passed to his six half-siblings.
Courtesy The Prince Estate / by Nancy Bundt
