According to reports, Oprah Winfrey purportedly purchased the rights to a planned biographical film about her life.
Oscar-winning director Kevin McDonald’s announcement of the documentary’s release in 2021 came via Apple.
Additionally, a news article on Page Six states that Oprah Winfrey bought back the rights to a documentary about her life from Apple TV+ executives for a hefty sum.
The publication also disclosed that a source tells Page Six that Macdonald, who collaborated on the project with Winfrey’s longtime producer Lisa Erspamer, had a falling out with the 70-year-old mogul after he completed the movie, and that it has since been placed on hold.
It is said that Oprah Winfrey reimbursed Apple executives for the whole amount to prevent them from airing the documentary.
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The article went on to say that, according to a reliable source in Hollywood, “Oprah didn’t like Kevin’s film, and he refused to change it, so Oprah paid back his fee to Apple.”
However, according to a source close to Oprah, Macdonald did not decline to make adjustments; rather, she simply decided that “it wasn’t the right time to do a documentary” before taking the unprecedented step of purchasing it back.
Although insiders in the know estimate that Winfrey would need to spend millions to get the rights to the documentary, the source disputes that the sum was in the seven figures.
Erspamer and McDonald first collaborated on the Oprah Whitney biographical film “Whitney.”
Erspamer has been a longstanding friend of the host and produced “The Oprah Winfrey Show” from 1999 to 2009.
Page Six is informed by a spokesperson for Winfrey, who terminated her content agreement with Apple in September 2022, that;
“Ms. Winfrey opted to put her documentary on hold after purchasing the rights back as the Apple TV+ arrangement was coming to an end.
“Ms. Winfrey is appreciative of Lisa Erspamer and Kevin MacDonald’s time and effort on the project, and she thinks they are very talented filmmakers.”
Photo Credit Instagram @OprahWinfrey
