Rihanna fans have been anxiously awaiting two new massive projects of hers over the last few year.s Most promising, of course, is her ninth studio album. As fans call it, R9. Rihanna has been teasing the album for a long time now, and it’s been shrouded in mystery. Another Rihanna project is a documentary from Peter Berg, who gave the artist an unfortunate acting debut in the disastrous Battleship. At the very least, we now know when Berg’s doc is coming out.
Next Summer
Previously, Berg said the documentary was going to come out last December. The doc — which has been in the works for four years — didn’t come out. Berg, however, confirmed to Collider his behind-the-scenes look at the life of Rihanna is indeed coming out next summer:
“The Rihanna doc is something I’ve been working on with her for almost four years now. Amazon’s gonna release it summer next year, sometime hopefully around the Fourth of July. It’s been a really epic journey, the past four years with her. She’s a remarkable woman, who every day seems to grow and branch out into new businesses and new endeavors at a rate that it’s almost hard to keep up with.
So every time we think we’re going to finish the movie and put it out, she does something like start a fashion line like Fenty, or her lingerie line, or her skincare line. She’s firing on all cylinders, she’s making new music now and she’s having so much success in business and she’s such an entrepreneur that we’re letting it grow, but we are gonna try and close it up in the spring and release it in the summer.”
The Amazon Deal
Last December, Amazon bought the documentary for a whopping $25 million. Worth every penny, most likely. The company declined to comment on the deal at the time, which was struck last December. Years ago, the doc was described as an “unfiltered look into Rihanna’s life and how she’s ascended to become a global icon.” Berg and his production company, FILM 45, originally wanted to make a doc similar to D.A. Pennebaker’s classic Bob Dylan doc, Don’t Look Back, which is like hanging out with Bob Dylan. If Berg can create a similar feeling for a viewing watching Rihanna, what an experience that’ll be. Similar to Dylan, Rihanna is one of the most influential artists of our times.
Why We’re Excited
Berg’s docs are exponentially more compelling than his feature film work. The director’s output is wildly inconsistent. Berg’s last two movies were Mile 22 and Spencer Confidential, which a lot of people watched on Netflix, but just like a lot of people eat McDonald’s, that doesn’t make it good. Berg’s movies such as The Kingdom, Friday Night Lights, and The Rundown, however, are aces.
On the other hand, Berg produces consistently compelling docs about living legends. The director’s HBO miniseries about boxing trainer Freddie Roach and his 30 for 30 about Wayne Gretzky have an intimacy, immediacy, and honesty often missing in his film work. Berg gets close to his subjects in his docs, so we should expect a Rihanna doc that doesn’t feel as manufactured as a lot of docs about major artists do. Don’t expect a blatant advertisement for Rihanna.
She’s not the only artist the filmmaker is working on a doc about. Berg confirmed to Collider he’s working on another one about the late Chris Cornell, the Soundgarden frontman with one of the most powerful voices in rock history. The director says it’s still early days on that doc, so unlike the Rihanna film, we have no clue when we’ll see Berg’s Cornell film.
