Prince Documentary With Unreleased Footage In The Works
Prince interview footage shot by director Kevin Smith back in 2001 is finally to be released in an upcoming Netflix documentary about the superstar.
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When asked in a new interview with The Guardian what the chances are of the footage ever being released Smith replied, “Very high. 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. 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’s interviews with Prince came about after the singer rejected a request from the director.
During his show An Evening with Kevin Smith, Smith recalled: “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 later received a call from the singer, who was a huge fan of the director’s 1999 film Dogma. Prince asked if Smith would work with him on a concert film. According to Smith, Prince told him: “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.”
Smith was then invited to Prince’s Paisley Park home and studio, where he recorded hours of interviews with the singer. The footage has remained unreleased ever since, now it seems that fans will finally be able to see the long-awaited interviews.