Update On Vince McMahon Documentary Release; Will Be A Series
More details have emerged about the highly-anticipated Netflix documentary on Vince McMahon.
The project has been in the works since 2020 and will provide an insight into the life of one of pro wrestling’s most influential figures. Recently, the Executive Producer of the documentary, Bill Simmons, added more intrigue to proceedings when he revealed that Vince McMahon will have no say in the final cut.
Now, in an interview on the SI Media podcast, Simmons has given an idea of when the documentary will be released, saying he expects it in the “first part” of 2024.
“I think it’s going to be the first part of next year. Chris Smith is directing it, I don’t know if he’s one of the five best documentary directors or one of the three, whatever shortlist there is, he’s on it. We spent a lot of time on it. I don’t want to say too much….”
Simmons says he had access to McMahon during production, and because of that he believes the results could be spectacular.
“Yes. That was the initial conceit of it. I don’t want to say too much, but I think it has the chance to be pretty spectacular.”
Vince McMahon documentary will have multiple episodes
Simmons says the documentary is a series that will have “a few parts,” but he doesn’t want it to be long for the sake of it.
“It’s a few parts. I’m pretty passionate about this. I think people pump…they add parts or make this stuff longer than it needs to be because that’s how you get paid more to do a documentary. I’m anti-that guy. I want these things to be the exact right length.
“I could never figure it out with my column, my column was always too long, but shaping a documentary is a lot like writing a column and figuring out, ‘I love that paragraph, but I have to cut it out. This moves better if I take that out.’
“With documentaries, if someone is doing it correctly, they are amazing pieces of art. It’s not just the director. There are a couple of editors, but there is usually one incredible editor, which we have for this. It’s a lot of people involved and there is real TLC. You can’t think of it like, ‘we can stretch this to six hours. This could be six instead of four.’ I think that’s crazy. This is about Vince McMahon, his life, and wrestling, so obviously, it can’t be two hours.”
When asked what McMahon himself will think of the results, Simmons is unsure, but he thinks WWE’s Executive Director was a great topic for a documentary.
“I don’t know. I would never speak for Vince. He’s been in my life for my entire life. I literally cannot remember my life without him being in it. If you look at him from…strip away all the other stuff and just talk about the last 50 years he had, pretty good topic for a documentary.”
H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.