Apple acquires screen rights for Songwriter, documentary based on Ed Sheeran's musical journey

The worldwide screen rights of Songwriter, a documentary on Ed Sheeran, has been purchased by tech giant Apple. The going price is yet to be revealed but sources tell Billboard, the deal has been closed at low- to mid-seven figures.[caption id="attachment_4326997" align="alignnone" width="825"] Ed Sheeran/Image from Twitter.[/caption]The movie, that made its North American debut at the Tribeca Film Festival, will be released in theaters as well as on Apple's platforms. The film has been directed by Murray Cummings, who is Sheeran's cousin. It traces the Grammy winner's rise in the music world and, his creative process in penning songs and performing his hits.Talking about the film, Cummings said he wanted to concentrate on Sheeran's avatar of a songwriter rather than the "superstar". "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."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 (Sheeran) 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?" he said.Songwriter has been produced by Kimmie Kim and executive produced by Stuart Camp and Stefan Demetriou.It premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February.