One of the strangest stories in modern hip-hop is heading to Netflix. The streaming platform has acquired The Disciple: A Wu-Tang Fable, a documentary chronicling the making of Wu-Tang Clan's one-of-a-kind album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, in a deal reported to be worth over $1m. The film will arrive on the platform October 16, 2026.

Directed by Oscar-winner Joanna Natasegara (The White Helmets, The Edge of Democracy) in her feature directorial debut, the documentary premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival before Netflix picked it up. Five years in the making, it traces the origins of the most unusual release in the group's catalog: a 31-track album recorded in secret over six years and pressed as a single physical copy, housed in an ornate silver case and conceived as a singular artwork rather than a commercial product.

At the center of the story is Tarik Azzougarh, the Dutch-Moroccan rapper and producer known as Cilvaringz, whose teenage obsession with the group turned into a genuine seat at the table. Mentored by RZA, Cilvaringz became the driving creative force behind the project, and the film follows his path from devoted fan to Wu-Tang insider.

RZA will serve on the project as an executive producer, alongside Joe Gebbia, Jason Ropell, and Abazar Khayami. Vanessa Kirby, Abigail Anketell-Jones, and Lauren Dark produce.

Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was built as a provocation. Rather than feed it into streaming culture's disposable churn, the group treated the record as a museum-grade object, complete with a contractual clause barring any commercial release until 2103. In 2015, the sole copy sold at auction for $2m, making it the most expensive musical work ever sold.

The buyer was Martin Shkreli, the pharmaceutical executive later convicted of securities fraud and just as infamous for hiking the price of a life-saving drug from $13.50 to $700 per tablet.

The album's journey only got stranger from there. Following Shkreli's legal troubles, the U.S. government seized the copy, and it passed to the crypto collective PleasrDAO, which bought it in 2022 for $4m. Shkreli, for his part, was later accused of making unauthorized copies in defiance of the album's restrictions.

Natasegara has framed the film as a story about more than a headline-grabbing sale. The documentary, she says, is about the "community, determination, innovation and love" that Wu-Tang represents, adding that she was drawn in by "a teenhood love of Wu-Tang and a story about the secret album too intriguing to miss."

The Disciple: A Wu-Tang Fable hits Netflix on October 16, 2026.