Famed producer, director and screenwriter Ava DuVernay is working on Netflix's new multi-part Prince documentary, sources recently confirmed to Variety. The Oscar-nominated filmmaker best known for "Selma" and "13th" also tweeted the news Monday night.
"Prince was a genius and a joy and a jolt to the senses," she wrote. "The only way I know how to make this film is with love. And with great care. I'm honored to do so and grateful for the opportunity entrusted to me by the estate."
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The estate has given DuVernay full access to the late artist's trove of archived recordings, including unreleased material, according to Deadline. "It wasn't just Prince's estate that saw DuVernay as a collaborator and specifically choose her to make the film. The man himself blessed the film in a sense. Before he passed away, Prince reached out to the Queen Sugar creator directly about working together."
The documentary is currently in its early stages, but DuVernay and other members of the production have visited Prince's Paisley Park home and studios several times over the past several months, Deadline reported.
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DuVernay, who hails from Long Beach, California, got her start on the big screen with her 2008 hip-hop film, “This Is the Life.”
Her Netflix limited series “The Central Park Five,” chronicling the true story of a 1989 case that wrongfully convicted five black teens of raping a woman, premieres in 2019.
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