B.B. King Estate Announces Authorized Documentary on the Life of the King of the Blues
The B.B. King Music Company and the Estate of B.B. King have announced a new feature documentary celebrating the life, music and legacy of the man widely known as the King of the Blues, according to Variety.
The film is in development with the full cooperation of the estate, giving filmmakers access to archival materials and the family's historical knowledge — the kind of inside access that distinguishes an authorized project from one assembled from public record. B.B. King died in 2015 at the age of 89, leaving a catalogue and a story that spans the entire arc of modern American popular music.
The documentary is expected to trace King's journey from his beginnings in the Mississippi Delta to international superstardom, charting his influence across blues, rock, soul, jazz and popular music. King's guitar, a black Gibson he named Lucille, became as iconic as the man himself — and the film's scope suggests it will be the storytelling, not just the music, that gets the spotlight.
Leslie Small is set to direct. His credits include Kevin Hart: Acting My Age and Black Comedy in America, placing him squarely in the world of performance-driven storytelling rather than traditional music documentary. Vassal Benford — Grammy-winning producer, CEO of the B.B. King Music Company and CEO of TBC Group — will executive produce. Hamid and Camille Torabpour's Winter State Entertainment is producing in partnership with the estate, with additional producers Lani Evans, Dr. Mark Smith, Nick Hagen and Sylvester Stewart Jr. also attached, per Variety.
Further announcements on the creative team, production timeline, distribution and release plans are expected to follow. None of those details has been confirmed yet.
For fans, this documentary arrives as part of a broader wave of projects bringing King's story to screens. A separate authorized biopic titled Lucille is also in development, produced by Mark Canton, Vassal Benford and the B.B. King Music Company & Estate, Deadline reported in December 2025. Where the biopic will dramatise King's life with actors, the documentary will draw on the real archive — the performance footage, the photographs, the voices of those who were there.
That two-pronged approach mirrors a pattern seen with figures whose cultural footprint is too large for a single format: the narrative feature reaches audiences who want the story dramatised, while the documentary serves those who want it from the source. Both projects carry the estate's blessing, meaning the family is steering how King's legacy reaches new audiences rather than leaving it to outside parties.
No release date has been set for either film.
