Oprah Winfrey Buys Documentary About Herself, Banning For Release?

If it seems like this Oprah Winfrey documentary should have come out years ago, you have a good memory: it was originally announced way back in 2021 and sounded like it was going to be a guaranteed hit.

Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald helmed the project, and it sounded like we were going to get a more intimate glimpse into Winfrey’s life than ever before.

However, Winfrey herself was apparently very unimpressed and allegedly butted heads with the director, delaying the documentary release before she bought the rights and killed it altogether.

Of course, differing creative visions are pretty common on projects like this, so why did things get so contentious between these two?

One Hollywood insider told Page Six that “Kevin made the film, but Oprah didn’t like it and he refused to change it.”

It’s still not clear (and likely never will be clear) what the media maven hated about the contents of this work, but it would certainly make sense that Oprah Winfrey would want to keep a documentary about herself from being released if she thought that it was a very unflattering portrayal.

So far, representatives for director Kevin Macdonald have not commented on this development. However, Oprah Winfrey’s spokesperson confirmed what happened with the documentary, fully dashing the hopes of any big fans who were eager to see it.

“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,” they said.

What is interesting about this announcement is that we still don’t know exactly when Oprah Winfrey decided to keep this documentary from ever seeing the light of day.

She ended her deal with Apple back in 2022, but it sounds like buying back the rights was a more recent decision.

Whenever the decision was made, it’s clear that she doesn’t want to burn any bridges: according to her spokesperson, “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.”

Another source close to Oprah Winfrey disclosed to Page Six the basics of why she wanted to kill the documentary. The director allegedly wouldn’t make requested edits, and Winfrey subsequently decided “it wasn’t the right time to do a documentary.”

Her decision to buy back the rights raised many eyebrows and led to speculation about how much money she had to spend to do so. Some have speculated that she would have had to spend millions of dollars, but another insider claims that the amount she spent was under a million dollars.

It seems clear that nobody suffers more from Oprah Winfrey’s decision to kill her documentary than Apple, who needs more killer content for their streaming platform.

The recent cancellation of Time Bandits illustrates how the streamer is still trying to find the right exclusives to keep their subscribers engaged.

An Oprah-centered documentary would have been a slam dunk, and her decision to buy back the rights may seriously set Apple TV+ back in its ongoing fight against rivals like Netflix and Disney+.

Source: Page Six