Thursday, March 28, 2024

Aretha Franklin Now Suing to Stop Private ‘Amazing Grace’ Screening

Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin attends Keep a Child Aliveís 2014 Black Ball at the Hammerstein Ballroom on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)

*Aretha Franklin really, REALLY doesn’t want you to see “Amazing Grace,” the Sydney Pollack-documentary showing the live recording of her 1972 concert album of the same name.

Just one day after its private screening for potential buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the Queen of Soul today filed an amended complaint in federal court in Colorado seeking an injunction against the film, reports Deadline.com.

As previously reported, Franklin’s legal team convinced a federal judge in Colorado to bar screenings of the film by producer at the Telluride Film Festival. Also, “Amazing Grace” was pulled from TIFF just hours before it was supposed to make its debut there last week.
Now Franklin is making further legal moves in the Colorado court over viewings of the film that occurred privately in Toronto, reports Deadline.com.

“On September 8, 2015, Mr. Elliott’s counsel agreed via e-mail that Mr. Elliott would not show the Film publicly,” said the amended complaint filed Sunday. Yet, on Saturday, September 12, 2015, Ms. Franklin’s counsel was informed via press inquiries that Mr. Elliott on that day was holding a screening of the film in Toronto for commercial purposes for film executives and others. The screening was allegedly attended by film industry executives for the particular purpose of obtaining a distribution agreement for the film. This screening was done without Ms. Franklin’s permission or knowledge, and was contrary to Mr. Elliott’s counsel’s specific representations.”

Franklin continues to seek a permanent injunction against showing of the film under copyright infringement, right of publicity, and anti-bootlegging claims among others.

The film may never see the light of day, but a trailer still exists:

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