Oprah Winfrey buys back the rights to her Apple TV+ documentary and shelves it indefinitely...
From Page Six
Oprah Winfrey paid a fortune to Apple TV+ chiefs to buy back the rights to a documentary about her life, Page Six can reveal.
Apple announced with great fanfare in 2021 that Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald would be directing the documentary about the talk show host-turned-media mogul.
However, sources tell Page Six that Macdonald, who teamed up with Winfrey’s longtime producer Lisa Erspamer on the project, had clashed with the 70-year-old billionaire after he finished the film, and it’s been on hold ever since.
“Kevin made the film, but Oprah didn’t like it and he refused to change it, and Oprah has paid back her fee to Apple,” a well-placed Hollywood source tells us.
A spokesperson for Winfrey — who ended her content deal with Apple in September 2022 — confirms to Page Six, “As the Apple TV+ deal was coming to an end, Ms. Winfrey bought back the rights to her docuseries and has since decided to put the doc on hold.
“Ms. Winfrey believes Lisa Erspamer and Kevin MacDonald are incredibly talented filmmakers and is grateful for the time and energy they put into the project.”
A source in Winfrey’s camp insists Macdonald did not refuse to make edits and that Winfrey simply decided “it wasn’t the right time to do a documentary” before making the unusual move of buying it back.
Reps for MacDonald didn’t respond to a request for comment.
While industry sources speculate Winfrey would have to pay millions to get the rights to the documentary back, a source in the know denies it was in the seven figures.
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