Aretha Franklin film Amazing Grace could be released after nearly 50 years

For nearly half a century a film of one of Aretha Franklin's most iconic performances has been gathering dust unseen by her millions of fans, but it could now finally be released.

The documentary movie - Amazing Grace - features the Queen of Soul singing two gospel concerts at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts, Los Angeles in 1972.

It was shot by the Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack and is said, by the small number of people who have seen it, to be one of the greatest concert movies of all time, an Oscar contender if it were to be shown publicly. One person who has seen it called it "jaw dropping".

Franklin, who died on Thursday aged 76, had been locked in a long legal battle over the film, several times coming close to allowing its release, only to change her mind.

A person with knowledge of the saga told The Telegraph: "The movie will come out. It seems the family is interested in it coming out."

The story of how the film ended up in legal limbo is one of the most tortuous in entertainment history.

Six months after the church concerts Atlantic Records put out audio as the double live album Amazing Grace, featuring a soaring 11-minute version of the hymn, and other songs including Mary, Don't You Weep and You'll Never Walk Alone.

It remains the biggest-selling album of Franklin's entire career, selling over two-million copies, the top selling live gospel album ever, and triumphed at the Grammy Awards.

Pollack's film was supposed to be released alongside the album but was shelved due to technical problems matching the audio to the moving images. He died in 2008.

The rights were taken over by Alan Elliott, a UCLA music lecturer, and the advent of digital technology helped fix the problems.

In 2010 an eight-year legal battle began, involving a myriad of lawyers, talent agents and other representatives, as the singer sued for unlicensed use of her image.

Franklin twice came close to agreeing to the release for $1 million but talks broke down.

The film was due to be shown at the Telluride Film Festival in 2015 but she got a last minute injunction, also blocking it at the Toronto Film Festival the same year.

Franklin’s objections to the release of a film documenting her finest hour were never clear, but appeared to be at least partly to do with money.

She was known to be wary of legal contracts, and being "ripped off," and preferred to be paid in cash.

It is unclear whether she left any instructions about the film in her will.

In a statement Mr Elliott said he was hopeful fans would be able to see it "soon," and that the singer herself really liked the movie.

He said: "Ms Franklin said 'I love the film'. Unfortunately for all of us, she passed before we could share that love.

"Amazing Grace is a testament to the timelessness of Ms Franklin’s devotion to music and God. Her artistry, her genius and her spirit are present in every note and every frame of the film. We look forward to sharing the film with the world soon.”

Franklin's funeral is due to be held on August 31 in her home city Detroit.

A day after her death sales of her music were up 1,568 per cent.

Among the many musicians who have previously expressed eagerness to see the Amazing Grace footage are Sir Mick Jagger, who was in the audience when it was recorded.

Meanwhile, it emerged that Franklin was discussing a proposed Hollywood biopic starring Jennifer Hudson as her younger self in the days before she died, although there is still no script.

Harvey Mason Jr, the producer of that project, told Variety: "In the last conversation I had with her last week, she was really optimistic and talking a lot about the movie."