This Ava DuVernay-Directed Netflix Doc Will Be the First Worthy Prince Tribute

Keep writing those checks, Netflix

October 31, 2018 9:00 am

We’ve made our thoughts on the posthumous treatment of Prince abundantly clear.

No, we won’t visit Paisley Park. Paying $38.50 to rummage through a dead man’s artifacts just doesn’t feel right. And we won’t listen to the record Prince’s estate released, which reached back into his vault of unreleased music — a notoriously private man’s literal vault. We’re not even going to mention JT’s Super Bowl covers. We won’t mention it!

But at long last, here’s some news that justice might be on the purple horizon. 

Deadline is reporting that Netflix has selected Ava DuVernay to direct a multi-part documentary series on Prince’s life. DuVernay, refresher, helmed historical drama Selma, Emmy-winning doc 13th and fantasy film A Wrinkle in Time in recent years. She’s more than up to the Herculean task. But most important here? She’s Prince-approved; he’d reached out personally to DuVernay on the possibility of working together before he passed. That’s all we need to tune in. 

Of course, it’s going to be a bit before that series pops up in your recommended feed on Netflix. Until then, gear up for DuVernay’s in-production Central Park Five, an examination of the 1989 court cases that sent five Harlem teens to jail for a horrific crime they didn’t commit. 

Main image via Betrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images

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