The Eagles picked the producer of their new Showtime documentary “The History of the Eagles” — but they insist that’s about all the control they had in the making of it.
“It’s really not a film that represents our point of view so much,” Glenn Frey said Saturday as the quartet spoke at the Sundance Film Festival hours before the film’s premiere.
The film was directed by Alison Ellwood and produced by Alex Gibney, whose other documentaries include the Academy Award-winning “Taxi to the Dark Side” and “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.”
“The History of the Eagles” will be shown in two parts on Showtime Feb. 15-16. It includes 40-year-old footage that was in the band’s archives, as well as recent interviews with the band.
Henley said he was interested in someone making a documentary about the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers but was unimpressed with recent music documentaries. So, he asked to see the work of Oscar-winning documentary filmmakers and was led to Gibney.
From there, he worked to convince Gibney that he should tell the band’s story, and they had “zero” influence on its outcome.
“We have a good story to tell and I think he’s a great storyteller,” Frey said, adding that Gibney told him, “We’re going to make a movie, and we’re going to tell the truth.”
Don Henley said the band hasn’t even seen the final cut yet. “I hope we like it,” he joked.
Frey said what surprised him most about the film, and seeing the old footage, was “how much fun we had.”
That may surprise people who are familiar with the band’s well-documented discord, including their acrimonious breakup in 1982 (they got back together in 1994).
“Most of the things that have been written about this band have focused on conflict — the journalism of conflict,” Henley said. “It sells papers and magazines, but one thing that Glen said that people will see in this documentary is that we had a lot of fun. Some of it’s not on film, and that’s good.”
“The bitter fighting that the media loved to talk about really didn’t take place. We argued a lot, we discussed stuff a lot, and that tension had a lot of to do with the creative process,” Walsh said. “We didn’t hate each other; we didn’t have fist fights, none of that.”
Walsh, Henley, Frey and Timothy Schmit were expected to attend the premiere later Saturday.
Frey said the band might eventually make new music together. Their last album together was 2007’s “Long Road Out of Eden.”
“I think what we realized is how good we are together and how things have changed, and it would be a shame if we didn’t try to find a way to create some more new music,” Frey said. “People really like to hear us sing, we really do well, we still perform at a very high level, so for me, it would be great.”
Utah Leaders and Locals Rally To Keep Sundance Film Festival In The State
With the 2025 Sundance Film Festival underway, Utah leaders, locals and longtime attendees are making a final push — one that could include paying millions of dollars — to keep the world-renowned film festival as its directors consider uprooting.
Thousands of festivalgoers affixed bright yellow stickers to their winter coats that read "Keep Sundance in Utah" in a last-ditch effort to convince festival leadership and state officials to keep it in Park City, its home of 41 years.
Gov. Spencer Cox said previously that Utah would not throw as much money at the festival as other states hoping to lure it away. Now his office is urging the Legislature to carve out $3 million for Sundance in the state budget, weeks before the independent film festival is expected to pick a home for the next decade.
It could retain a small presence in picturesque Park City and center itself in nearby Salt Lake City, or move to another finalist — Cincinnati, Ohio, or Boulder, Colorado — beginning in 2027.
"Sundance is Utah, and Utah is Sundance. You can't really separate those two," Cox said. "This is your home, and we desperately hope it will be your home forever."
Last year's festival generated about $132 million for the state of Utah, according to Sundance's 2024 economic impact report.
Festival Director Eugene Hernandez told reporters last week that they had not made a final decision. An announcement is expected this year by early spring.
Colorado is trying to further sweeten its offer. The state is considering legislation giving up to $34 million in tax incentives to film festivals like Sundance through 2036 — on top of the $1.5 million in funds already approved to lure the Utah festival to its neighboring... Read More