<\/p>\n
\u201cOzzy: No Escape From Now\u201d \u2014\u00a0released on Paramount+ on Oct. 6 (alongside several special fan screenings) \u2014 wasn\u2019t supposed to be a posthumous feature documentary looking back at the final years of Ozzy Osbourne\u2019s life. But that\u2019s what it tragically turned out to be after the rock icon passed away in July, when the film was still in the edit.<\/p>\n
Brit director Tania Alexander, with the consent and involvement of Sharon Osbourne (who exec produces), had set out to make a film exploring the aftermath of Ozzy\u2019s life-changing fall in 2019, the toll it took it on him, his mental health and his family, alongside his desperate efforts to get back on stage and the emotional devastation at having to cancel his farewell tour.<\/p>\n
More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Amid the pain, \u201cNo Escape From Now\u201d also manages to showcases the comfort Ozzy found in making music once more \u2014\u00a0particularly for what would be his final studio album \u201cPatient Number 9\u201d \u2014\u00a0and his determination to say one last goodbye to his fans, culminating in his triumphant farewell gig in his home city of Birmingham (surrounded by some of the biggest rock stars on the planet \u2014\u00a0most of them extremely emotional about honoring their hero).<\/p>\n When Ozzy passed away less than three weeks later, Alexander was still deep in the edit on the film. But as she explains, not only did she keep going \u2014\u00a0at the full request of the family \u2014\u00a0but, barring one addition at the very end, she didn\u2019t change a second.<\/p>\n Phil [Alexander, producer and former editor of Kerrang! magazine] and I have a very long-standing relationship with the Osbornes. We knew what had happened to Ozzy, and we knew around the time he was doing \u201cPatient Number Nine.\u201d We had a conversation with Sharon. We wanted to tell the story of what had happened to him since that fall, which we knew had really impacted him and the family, and she said: Well, I really want it told, but I want it told as it is, as harsh as it is, I don\u2019t want any punches pulled. The one thing that you know about the Osbournes is they are really honest. There\u2019s no spin involved. Sharon will let you completely have your freedom, but we always wanted to prefix that with: this is what we want to do. And if there were going to be any red flags, she would have flagged them.<\/p>\n When you\u2019ve got somebody as ill as Ozzy was, you just need to have things slightly more planned in the sense of, \u2018what are your intentions\u2019? And Sharon never blocked anything and was really trusting. We went into it knowing that there might be some ups and downs when it came to being able to film because he was going through operations, or he was going through bad patches. So we just had to be flexible. But she said: just tell the truth. We\u2019ve been through a terrible time, so we want it reflected.<\/p>\n There were moments you see in the opening where he sits in his chair and he\u2019s quite uncomfortable, because of the Parkinson\u2019s but also because he had horrendous back pain continually. I was always very aware of his cushions. So we were constantly asking him, do you want to stop? And he\u2019s the kind of person who sits down and goes, how long is this going to take? And then, honestly, about 20 minutes in he\u2019d be really enjoying chatting about himself and say, have you got any more questions? You could see that it was part of his day and almost something enjoyable to do.<\/p>\n Which is crazy. When we first started filming with him, he\u2019d had to postpone his world tour. So when we were filming, it was always about, will he be able to do the tour? Can he get fit to do the tour? And then he does the Commonwealth Games and comes back with all guns blazing, saying, I\u2019m going to do the tour. And then the rug\u2019s pulled again. So up until that point, we were seeing if he could get back on stage to do the tour. And then it literally happened in that chat. He\u2019d been saying to Sharon, I feel I haven\u2019t said thank you and goodbye, and if I can\u2019t do a tour, I need to do something. And so she said what about doing this one last show. We didn\u2019t start off with that being the end. Our pitch was a story about one man\u2019s battle to get back on stage one last time. But that\u2019s what it became. And the determination I saw. He had sepsis at the end of April, and I think had 72 days before he was meant to be on stage. The determination was phenomenal.<\/p>\n There is genuine respect and love. A lot of those guys will reflect back to when they were kids and how he changed their lives. Billy Corgan got really upset. James Hetfield was really emotional. He means so much in so many different ways. It was an extraordinary moment for me, seeing Ozzy watch those really big artists singing his songs in front of him. And they were genuinely nervous, you felt that. But I did think they said some really nice things, and they all really meant it.<\/p>\n We were in the edit and had another six weeks to go. We\u2019d cut 90 minutes and were doing the last 30 \u2014 the build up to the farewell gig. After he died, there was a part of me that thought, if look back on the 90 minute now it\u2019s going to look different through a new lens. So I watched it back and didn\u2019t change it \u2014 I just thought, no, it\u2019s the same film I cut before. And it ends in exactly the same way we always wanted \u2014 where it cuts to black. Apart from we we added the funeral procession at the end at the request of the family.<\/p>\n They wanted us to keep going. Sharon has always been really behind it. She\u2019s always been really supportive. But there was just a request from the family that we added the cortege montage at the end. So we did. But otherwise it didn\u2019t change, and it ended where it was meant to end originally.<\/p>\n Nothing at all, because he still made it onto the stage. It was heartbreaking looking at the scene of him and Sharon talking about how he could hang up the mic and then \u2018it\u2019s just us, pottering around the garden.\u2019 That was really hard to cut. Me and my editor cried a bit at times.<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cOzzy: No Escape From Now\u201d \u2014\u00a0released on Paramount+ on Oct. 6 (alongside several special fan screenings) \u2014 wasn\u2019t supposed to be a posthumous feature documentary looking back at the final years of Ozzy Osbourne\u2019s life. But that\u2019s what it tragically turned out to be after the rock icon passed away in July, when the film […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2073466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[340019,22406,375830],"class_list":["post-2073465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-ozzy","tag-sharon-osbourne","tag-tania-alexander"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/No-Escape-From-Now-Director-on-the-Rock-Icon-Dying.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2073465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2073467,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073465\/revisions\/2073467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2073466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2073465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2073465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2073465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How did this film come your way?<\/h5>\n
So did she effectively give you access all areas?<\/h5>\n
As you say, you\u2019re dealing with someone who\u2019s really ill and going through up and downs. Were there ever any moments where it felt too intrusive or where it was too much for him to continue?<\/h5>\n
The doc builds up to Ozzy\u2019s final farewell show in Birmingham and whether or not he\u2019ll be able to appear. But this gig hadn\u2019t even been discussed when you started.<\/h5>\n
I loved the scenes with the other major rockers getting together. The warmth and love they have towards Ozzy was so sweet to see<\/h5>\n
This was made as a living doc. What stage were you at when Ozzy passed away?<\/h5>\n
What conversations were had about the doc with the family, who were obviously in mourning at the time. Was there ever a suggestion of not keeping going with it?<\/h5>\n
And no other element of the film changed at all?<\/h5>\n