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Aretha Franklin doc producer agrees to one month pause in bid to negotiate deal
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 16 September 2015
Bad news for anyone who likes to watch their 40 year old Aretha Franklin documentaries during the month of September. The producer of ‘Amazing Grace’ has agreed to a 30 day injunction that means the film won’t be screened during the next month.
As previously reported, the four decades old film, documenting Franklin recording her live album ‘Amazing Grace’ in 1972, was only recently completed. It was due to be screened at two recent film festivals in North America, but legal action by Franklin stopped both. Though, legal reps for the singer claim, producer Allan Elliott held a private screening for distributors during the Toronto International Film Festival, and that breached their clients contractual, image, privacy and other rights.
Having stopped the imminent public screenings, a new lawsuit against Elliott now seeks to stop the film from ever being shown. Franklin argues that when the documentary was filmed back in 1972, it was agreed that any and all footage could only be commercialised with the singer’s permission, hence the core breach of contract claim at the heart of this case.
Elliott has now seemingly agreed to halt any plans to screen his film for 30 days in order to allow negotiations with Franklin’s people that might secure her permission for the documentary to be shown. Which seemingly brings this dispute down to money. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Franklin’s people reckon Elliot will net at least $2 million from the film, and the singer therefore wants $1 million to approve its screening. But it’s thought the film’s producers are seeking a more modest upfront commitment.
The financial negotiations will be influenced by how confident Franklin’s legal team are that they could actually stop the screening of the film worldwide through the American courts, and whether Elliott’s advisors reckon he could win a countersuit. Although all this hoo haa may well have increased interest in the film, which might enable the producer to raise more funds to pay an advance to secure the singer’s approval. We’ll see.
