Apple buys new Ed Sheeran documentary 'Songwriter' in a 7-figure deal
Apple just won the auction for world screen rights to Ed Sheeran's documentary Songwriter, according to Billboard. The documentary has been directed by Murray Cummings and shows how Ed found a way to write and perform his originals by staying true to who he is as a person.
The film made its North American debut after it was screened on Monday (April 23) at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. The deal is low to mid-seven figures for world rights and Apple plans on releasing the documentary with an event that consists of the theatrical component along with the release of the film on various platforms of Apple. Songwriter was produced by Kimmie Kim and executive produced by Stuart Camp and Stefan Demetriou.
The film has already premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February. The film has a special touch of Murray, who is Ed's cousin and has seen him grow as a singer. Being witness to how Ed rose to become one of the most loved singers in the world, Murray is able to depict him in a way that no one has ever seen before.
Luckily for him, he was there to capture all the moments in Ed's life, right from his opening gigs for Taylor Swift to his sold-out performance. Talking to Billboard, Murray confessed that he wanted the world to see how he is as a songwriter and what goes into the making of songs that are admired by many.
"I wanted to focus on him being a songwriter rather than 'Ed Sheeran the superstar' type thing. It's like, this is a guy that's really good at his job, and writes songs all the time -- if his brain's on, he wants to write," he said. "It takes a lot to write a song, you go down a lot of different channels and not all of them are great." In the documentary, one can also see how Ed deals with times when his songs become a hit or when they are criticized. One could say it is Ed in the real world, one that his fans don't know about.
"To have a camera on that while that's happening, I'd imagine it's quite difficult. I was really lucky to have that happen, and I felt very privileged to be in that situation where [Ed] doesn't mind that I'm filming while he's being that vulnerable. So I felt, I've got to make something out of this, because who else can?" he added.