A documentary about Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee’s tumultuous final years is in the works and nearing completion. Titled Stan Lee: The Final Chapter, the film takes fans behind the scenes for an in-depth exploration of how Lee was exploited by his former business partners for financial gain. The documentary is directed by Jon Bolerjack, who worked closely with Lee during the last four years of Lee’s life. As one of Lee’s assistants, Bolerjack accompanied Lee and Lee’s entourage to numerous events and shot several hundred hours of video, which serves as the foundation for the documentary. The footage highlights Lee’s “closest confidants, including several who exploited Lee’s declining health and age.”
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Stan Lee: The Final Chapter highlights how Lee was used to generate revenue at convention appearances, as autographed memorabilia and photo ops brought in large sums of money — most of which was “never to be seen by Lee or his family.” Bolerjack is looking to raise funds to help complete the documentary through a just-launched Kickstarter. It’s expected that the finished film will be released “before the end of the year.”
Headlines of Lee being the victim of elder abuse were prevalent during the latter stages of his life. Just a few months before Lee passed away in November 2018, he had filed a restraining order against his former business partner Keya Morgan. Back in 2019, Morgan was arrested on elder abuse charges, with police stating Morgan had convinced Lee that he was in danger and needed to be moved. In lawsuits filed against his ex-manager and attorney, Lee called them “unscrupulous businessmen, sycophants and opportunists.”
ComicBook is able to share an exclusive clip from Stan Lee: The Final Chapter. You can watch it in the space below.
“It was an absolute dream come true for me to get to intimately know, befriend and travel the world with one of my life’s icons, Stan Lee,” Bolerjack shared in a statement. “He entrusted me to capture the final years of his life on video and encouraged me to share this footage with the world after he was gone. And after witnessing how a handful of people who surrounded him continually betrayed him in his weakened condition, I felt it was left to me to tell this shockingly and truly heartbreaking story of his last days.”
In the past four years, Bolerjack has “invested hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money” into Stan Lee: The Final Chapter while working alongside his team of editors and fellow producers. To raise the necessary funding to complete the film, a Kickstarter fundraiser is launching today. Those interested in learning more information can watch the video above or visit the film’s Kickstarter page to make a contribution.
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