EXCLUSIVE: Joan Rivers, the legendary comedian, is getting the documentary treatment.
Called “quite possible the most intuitively funny woman alive” by the New York Times television critic Jack Gould, Passion Pictures and The Mediapro Studio U.S. and Canada are working up a new feature documentary about Rivers.
It comes more than ten years after her death and will feature unprecedented access to Rivers’ own archives including newly unearthed home videos and hundreds of hours of previously unheard comedy recordings and audio tapes as well as interviews with her family, including her daughter Melissa, and her closest confidantes.
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Rivers, who came up in the Greenwich Village clubs alongside the likes of George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Woody Allen, was an uncompromising woman who succeeded in the male-dominated world of standup.
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She became well known thanks to appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson but fell out with the iconic talk show host after Fox gave her her own show The Late Show with Joan Rivers, becoming one of the first woman to have her own late-night show. It only lasted two seasons, but she then went on to host The Joan Rivers Show, a syndicated show that ran for five seasons, and in the 1990s was known for her red carpet work on E! including Fashion Police, while also starring in reality series Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?
The untitled documentary is the latest non-fiction work about the comedian, who was also the subject of Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, which premiered at Sundance in 2010.
Colette Camden, who directed BBC documentary series Lucan, will helm the doc with Chris King, who has worked on Amy and Senna set as editor.
The film is currently in production and is slated for release in 2026.
Passion Pictures is the company behind Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, while The Mediapro Studio US and Canada is the U.S. arm of the Spanish producer behind The Young Pope and documentaries including Benny the Jet. Warner Bros. Discovery Global Content Sales will handle distribution.
Caroline Sciama (Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar) produces alongside Passion Pictures’ David Moulton, Emily Jeal and Hamish Fergusson and Mediapro’s Laura Fernández Espeso. JC Acosta and Pam Healey exec produce with Pam Sealy as line producer.
Melissa Rivers said, “Now feels like the right time to look at why my mother’s voice still resonates today, and, more importantly, how that very distinctive voice came to be. Hers is not only a story of a trailblazer but of a real woman trying to navigate a life of conflicting desires, and how that shaped her hilarious view of the world.”
“It’s a career dream for all of us at Passion to tell Joan Rivers’ story”, said Passion Pictures’s Hamish Fergusson. “It feels especially fitting to be working with her daughter Melissa and to have assembled such an exceptional team of partners and creative talent to honour a true trailblazer – continuing Passion’s ambition to tell the stories of the most influential cultural figures of our time, in the most creative ways possible.”
“Joan Rivers was a revolutionary force in comedy and culture, and this documentary is a raw, funny, and human portrait of a legend who truly changed the game,” added Pam Healey, Head of Unscripted at The Mediapro Studio U.S. and Canada. “We’re proud to help bring her story to life alongside the exceptional team at Passion Pictures with the depth and respect it deserves.”
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