Yesterday, Deadline reported that producer and director Ava DuVernay is working with Netflix on a Prince documentary. Now director Kevin Smith, who has his own connection the late musician, is commenting on the news.
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According to Deadline, DuVernay, who is set to direct DC’s New Gods movie, has not just the blessing of Prince’s estate but the late musician himself who reportedly spoke with her before his passing about collaborating. However, with a documentary in the works the matter of Smith’s own footage from 2001 now comes into play.
“Got to see the hours of material I shot in 2001 for the first time earlier this year,” Smith wrote on Twitter today. “Estate said it’s the only unseen non-performance footage they have in the vault. Can’t imagine it doesn’t show up now as Prince was electrifying in it, preaching on the industry, music, and faith.”
If you’re not sure what Smith is talking about — after all, he’s best known for his non-documentary works such as Clerks — here’s a quick explanation. Back in the early 2000s, Prince hired Smith to make a documentary that remains unreleased to this day. As Smith recounts in his An Evening With Kevin Smith film, when wanting to secure the rights to Prince’s “The Most Beautiful Girl in The World” for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Smith ended up chatting with the musician on the phone. That conversation led to Smith heading to Paisley Park to make the documentary.
With Smith’s project full of never-before-seen footage and a new documentary in the works, will Smith’s footage make it into the Netflix project? Smith’s description of the non-performance footage certainly sounds like the kind of thing one would want in a documentary about a man who DuVernay herself said was “a genius and a joy and a jolt to the senses”. It also seems like something that would be particularly useful as Prince was notoriously private and footage of him, of stage and talking about things that deeply mattered to him may be somewhat difficult to come by, save for Smith’s work.
Outside of the logical reasons why the footage might be used, it does seem like DuVernay will certainly have the opportunity to do so. DuVernay will have full access to everything in Prince’s archives to help in development of the film — including unreleased video as well as music from Prince. DuVernay has reportedly already spent time at Prince’s Paisley Park home and studios along with editor Spencer Averick and other members of the production team in recent months.
Do you think that Smith’s footage will make it into the Prince documentary? Should it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
