’72 Aretha Franklin film to finally reach theaters

and the Telluride Film Festival from showing “Amazing Grace” in 2015 and ’16, even after deals for her compensation seemingly had been worked out. The singer’s opposition apparently had nothing to do with the film’s content, which she publicly had said she "loved."

“There is just this deep-seated desire for something to not happen right now, so I’d rather just respect her wishes,” Julie Huntsinger, executive director of the Telluride Film Festival, told Variety last year.

Film insiders speculated that the release of the movie, which ends with a young Franklin performing “Never Grow Old,” was simply too difficult for the ailing singer to confront — that she knew it amounted to a eulogy.

Legal clearance finally came after Owens invited Elliott to her aunt’s funeral in Detroit. A couple of weeks later, he contacted Owens about restarting talks.

“Sabrina said, ‘Why don’t you come and show the movie to the family?'" he said. He flew to Michigan and did just that on Sept. 20, with about 25 people on hand.

“There was clapping and crying,” Owens said.

Elliott said he spoke to Owens as he left for the airport, and she said, “Let’s do it.”

Unless the deal hits a snag, the film’s release will mark the second time this year that a movie will have made its way to theaters after decades in purgatory.

“The Other Side of the Wind,” which Orson Welles left unfinished upon his death in 1985, was completed and shown for the first time in North America in September at the Telluride Festival. Netflix began streaming it last week.

“Aretha would want us going for a best picture,” Elliott said. “And she’d want to win, too."