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This story was originally published in November 2018.
Were republishing it today for the release ofAmazing Grace.
In January 1972, Aretha Franklin came to Los Angeles to create what would become her greatest artistic statement.
Enter Alan Elliott, a young Atlantic Records employee in 1990 when he first learned about the long-lost movie.
When did you first hear Arethas albumAmazing Grace?In 1972 when I was 8 years old.
WasAmazing Gracean album that stayed with you throughout your youth and into your college years?Yes.
I was hired by Atlantic Records to become their A&R person for black music in 1990.
Jerry and I became very close, and Jerry said at a certain point, You loveAmazing Grace?
I said, Yeah.
He said, We filmed it.
I was like, What?
He was like, Yeah, theres a director, Sydney somebody.
So Sydney and I started having the conversation in 1990.
Sydney never tells me about why the movie never got finished.
And he said, Yeah, youre the Don Quixote pop in; why dont we get into that?
So Sydney and I and Jerry are working on it together.
That worked very well for a couple months, and then Sydney got pancreatic cancer.
Larry had told me that Sydney was sick.
So Sydney called and said, Hi, Alan.
Im fucking dying, but Im calling because I want you to finish the movie.
So Sydney and Ari Emanuel went to Warner Bros., and we expropriated the movie at Sydneys request.
Then the fun started.
What was your reaction when you first saw what you had bought?It was literally boxes.
Sydney had died and then there was this delivery of all this stuff.
There were just reams of documents and releases and things.
I started just going backward in sort of a detective way: Why were they lip-reading?
It was,Oh, they dont have any sync.
There is no work print.
There is no assemblage that he had made.
Sydney had no experience doing documentaries.
The film company could not find her contract.
We had a meeting, and I showed him the footage and he was kind of blown away.
We didnt have $5 million, so she just didnt want to do it in the end.
From Arethas side, you’re free to only imagine how angry she was.
She had been promised herWoodstock.
The record company made a great record and the film company just bungled it.
I can only imagine the heartbreak she had from 1972 to want to get that out into the world.
Did she ever see the film?She saw the film I think in 2015.
I genuflected and I said, Miss Franklin, Jerry Wexler sent me.
Im so excited to meet you.
Im the one who ownsAmazing Grace.
And she looked at me and said, Well be speaking.
And that was it.
She would change agents, and there was no manager, so there was no real way to negotiate.
She did all her own negotiating, from what I was told.
Then in 2013, Warner Bros.
So they sued the film festival and it was just chaos.
The judge didnt want to say no to Aretha Franklin.
Then they said Aretha wanted money, and we said, Okay, how much?
I again took it as a hopeful sign that we could negotiate.
Wasnt there a 2016 Telluride cancellation as well?Yeah, that was the second time we tried it.
They said to us that they wanted to negotiate another deal after the Lionsgate deal fell apart.
I wanted to work with Aretha Franklin.
I wanted to bring glory to Aretha Franklin; it was never to be disrespectful to Aretha Franklin.
There was a lot of emotion when we showed it.
I could be overestimating.
She said, Well, you should make me an offer.
And I said, Okay, how about this?
And she said, How about that?
And I said, Okay, great.
Its the craziest story that I know of in show business.
I think weve lapped the field on crazy.
Are there distribution plans beyond the one-week runs in New York and Los Angeles?Were sussing it out.
How are we going to do stuff that is meaningful to her legacy?
So weve been very picky about the conversations.
There are other ways besides going through a giant distribution company.
As you could tell, after 11 years, Im not a volume business.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
