Representatives of the Prince Estate and its partners have been discussing upcoming release plans and why a sprawling multi-part Netflix documentary about the star was cancelled.
Speaking on 7 June (what would have been Prince’s 67th birthday) at a panel discussion that was held at this year’s Prince Celebration event in Minneapolis, Londell McMillan of Prince Legacy LLC indicated that some kind of reissue of Prince’s 1986 album Parade could be in the works for next year, its 40th anniversary.
McMillan said that he wanted Wendy & Lisa, members of Prince’s band The Revolution and key collaborators on Parade, to be involved in this in some way, as he confirmed that getting in touch with former associates is one of the estate’s priorities.
"Some had issues with Prince. Prince had issues with them,” Prince Facebook page The Purple Stream reports McMillan as saying. “Relationships have to be rebuilt with associated artists, producers and musicians. Prince was at a point with some folk where he didn’t care… but we have to! We are rebuilding and reconnecting people."
The Minnesota Star Tribune, meanwhile, reports that there was confirmation that a deluxe version of 1985’s Around The World In A Day album is in the pipeline, along with vinyl versions of Hit and Run Phase One and Two - the final two Prince albums released in his lifetime.
In other news, Johnny Nelson - son of Prince’s brother John R Nelson - stressed that, while Prince’s family wants the unreleased music from his legendary vault to see the light of day, it won’t be rushed. Of the audio, video and other material found in the vault, we learned that only around 45% of it has so far been digitised, emphasising the scale of the task at hand.
As to why Ezra Edelman’s nine-hour Netflix Prince documentary was cancelled, Londell McMillan said: “Do you really want to know why we stopped Netflix? You will not disrespect Prince on my watch.” Johnny Nelson confirmed that Prince’s family also agreed that the Netflix documentary should be stopped.
Perhaps attempting to allay fears that the estate’s so-far-unconfirmed replacement documentary (or possibly documentaries) will be too fawning in tone, McMillan said: “Prince needs controversy but it’s gotta be truthful.” He added that “an Academy Award-winning director” is involved in this project, but didn’t name them.
One thing we did learn, though, is that the previously announced Purple Rain Broadway musical is set to be turned into a film, with Ryan Coogler (Sinners, Black Panther) attached to direct.
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