Michel Gondry's biopic inspired by Pharrell Williams and Ezra Edelman's documentary about Prince will not be released.

      David Zaslav isn't the only figure in Hollywood who is completely abandoning already completed feature films. This week brings news that two highly anticipated films in various stages of post-production will not be released.

      First, last year Michel Gondry directed Golden (previously titled Atlantis), which was inspired by Pharrell Williams' childhood and featured a remarkable cast, including Kelvin Harrison Jr., Halle Bailey, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Brian Tyree Henry, Janelle Monáe, Missy Elliott, Quinta Brunson, Anderson .Paak, and Jaboukie Young-White. Universal Pictures had slated it for release on May 5, but now Variety reports that the $20 million film has been cancelled “after unanimous agreement from the producers and Gondry that the film did not meet the expectations of its developed concept.”

      “When we came together in the editing room, we all agreed there was no way to move forward in telling the version of this story that we had originally envisioned,” said Williams and Gondry in a joint statement. “We value the hard work of the talented cast and crew. While it’s disappointing that we can't release this film, we have fantastic partners at Universal and will work together again soon in a different capacity.”

      With the film being shelved, the only image that will be publicly available is the still below, which was revealed by Empire last fall. In an interesting twist of unintentional foreshadowing, Gondry’s last film, The Book of Solutions (which is expected to finally be released in the U.S. this year), is a meta story about a filmmaker struggling with the editing of a major project.

      Additionally, this week we learned that Ezra Edelman, following his nearly eight-hour documentary O.J.: Made in America, completed a nine-hour documentary on Prince, which included exclusive access to his personal archives, but Netflix has now chosen to scrap the film. This follows a significant report from the New York Times last fall detailing the conflicts between Prince’s estate and Edelman during the film’s production, particularly about the inclusion of stories regarding the singer's abusive relationships relayed by his ex-girlfriends, as well as how he abandoned his wife, Mayte Garcia, after the loss of their child.

      “Prince’s estate and Netflix have reached a mutual agreement that will enable the estate to create and produce a new documentary featuring exclusive material from Prince’s archive,” Netflix stated to Variety. “As a result, the Netflix documentary will not be released.”

      Edelman dedicated four years of his life to working on this project.