Apple has acquired worldwide screen rights to the documentary Songwriter, which chronicles the career of pop superstar Ed Sheeran. Songwriter will be released in theaters in the future as well as becoming available on all of Apple’s platforms. The documentary received its world premiere on Berlin International Film Festival back in February.
Songwriter was directed by Ed Sheeran’s cousin Murray Cummings, who had an opportunity to follow “Shape of You” singer from his early beginnings to sold-out stadium performances and capture a good chunk of that transformation on video. The documentary also focuses on Sheeran’s creative process and gives an insight into his songwriting.
“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,” said Cummings about the project. “It takes a lot to write a song; you go down a lot of different channels and not all of them are great. 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?”
Songwriter premiered in North America on Monday at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. According to Billboard, Apple paid “low to mid-seven figures” for the rights on the documentary.
