Weeks after then-executive producer Oprah Winfrey stepped away from Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick’s documentary about sexual assault allegations against music mogul Russell Simmons, severing the film’s path to distribution on Apple+, The Hollywood Reporter writes that the movie, which focuses in particular on accuser and ex-Def Jam executive Drew Dixon, has been picked up by HBO Max. It’s the new streaming service’s first ever festival purchase.
On the Record, as the documentary is now titled, also presents the experiences of Sil Lai Abrams, Sheri Hines, Jenny Lumet and Alexia Norton Jones, just a few of the mounting number of accusers who have come out against Simmons in the last several years.
After announcing her decision to step away from the documentary as executive producer last month, Winfrey issued a statement saying that, while she believed the accusers, “the filmmakers and I are not aligned in that creative vision,†and that “there is more work to be done†on the movie. Oprah later revealed to the New York Times that Russell Simmons had allegedly attempted to pressure her to withdraw from the film, and that she herself had questions about Dixon’s allegations that were not answered in the documentary