Date: November 12, 2006

A George Miller interview appeared this morning on “Sunday Morning Shootout”, a talk show on American Movie Classics that airs most Sunday mornings.

George Miller is a former physician and current Australian film director probably best known for “Mad Max”, “Witches of Eastwick” and “Babe: Pig in the City”.

Miller’s appearance on today’s show was for his latest film, “Happy Feet”, and during the interview there arose a brief exchange about Prince’s involvement in the soundtrack.

Peter Guber (co-host and movie producer): But how did you get Prince? I mean this is the most difficult, challenging fellow. He seems to be someone who wants no part of the movie business anymore. And suddenly you have an original song from Prince. And reworked lyrics from another piece of music [Kiss].

George Miller: Well, you know, that was one of the nicest things that happened. I mean, we wanted to change two words in the song “Kiss” that Nicole Kidman sings. And he said, “No, you can’t change my lyrics.”

So the guys, your friends -- Gary Lamelle and Darren Heedman from Warners -- said to Prince, “Look, if you saw the movie you’d see how it was appropriate.” He said, “Well, show me the movie”.

And so they took the still unfinished film up to Paisley Park in Minneapolis. And he sat down and heard Nicole sing. He kept stopping it and bringing people in, telling them, “Hey, watch this!”.

Once he got passed that opening scene he watched the whole movie through and as it finished he ran over and picked up a guitar and started to strum. And he found a chord and he said, “Give me two weeks, I’m going to write you a song.”

And he not only let us to change the lyrics [to “Kiss”], but he didn’t want any money for any of this. I spoke to him and said, “Why did you do it?” He said, “The movie said something to me.”

Peter Guber: Wow.

George Miller: And I’ve heard it [“The Song of the Heart”] about 250 times now. I love it…I love it each time. It’s really a wonderful song.

Sunday Morning Shootout website:

http://www.amctv.com/sect...ST,00.html

nice story

thanks for posting.

on a side note I cant believe they let George Miller direct again after the
nightmare that was Babe:Pig In The City.
That was probably one of the most disturbing things i ever saw.

muirdo said:

Brendan said:

And he not only let us to change the lyrics [to “Kiss”], but he didn’t want any money for any of this. I spoke to him and said, “Why did you do it?” He said, “The movie said something to me.”


no money back????
nice

Presumably he is saying that Prince did not demand a fee for permission to use the song' Kiss', or for the new song.

Prince will receive money for the songs as a result of his publishing deal.

The publishing rights registrations feature at ASCAP and under his deal with Universal, they will collect publishing monies and pay these over in accordance with the agreement:


ACSAP registration entry for the new song

THE SONG OF THE HEART (Title Code: 503401778)

Writers: PRINCE

Performers: PRINCE

Publishers/Administrators:

CONTROVERSY MUSIC
UNIVERSAL MUSIC CORPORATION
2440 SEPULVEDA BLVD.
SUITE 100
LOS ANGELES , CA, 90064
Tel. (310) 235-4700

UNIVERSAL MUSIC CORPORATION
2440 SEPULVEDA BLVD.
SUITE 100
LOS ANGELES , CA, 90064
Tel. (310) 235-4700


.
[Edited 11/12/06 10:43am]

langebleu said:

Yeah, I think that's right. Prince was waiving his fee for this song's creation and use in this film. A fee which can be pretty significant given high-profile artists.

But once it gets put on a soundtrack -- which it has -- the publishing company has to payout to the appropriate parties as agreed upon.

Here's something I found on the subject matter of soundtracks:

"Fees: When a film company is dealing with a very successful writer-artist, the fees will be substantial. In many cases, there is a so called all-in lump sum recording fund which covers not only the creative fee for writing the composition and for being the recording artist and producer of the composition but also all the costs of recording the master (studio, tape, engineers, musicians, vocalists, equipment rentals and mixing costs). When this all-in fee approach is used, there is also usually a negotiated sum designated as the creative fee for composing the composition (for example, $60,000 of the $200,000 recording fund being the songwriter fee)."

I love that story

That's nice artcile, thanks for posting.


I'm really excited about seeing this movie, it looks like it could be the beast animatied feature, sicne "Finding Nemo" **which is hosently one of my fav. moveis ever!!**

Stories like this make me love Prince again.

This is the Prince I love.

Brendan said:

THANks 4 the info
i love prince

Brendan thanks so much 4 sharing and langeblu we can always count on u for your informative information

What a cool story!

does anyone know what they changed in "kiss"?

paisleypark319 said:

Just two words.

"U don't have 2 be rich 2 be my girl"

"Girl" is changed to "pearl", as the song is sung by a female penguin in the persona of Norma Jean (Marilyn Monroe).

"Ain't no particular sign I'm more compatible with"

"Sign" becomes "song", presumably because Norma Jean is open to whatever song leads her to her soul mate.

The song is also a mash-up with "Heartbreak Hotel" (the heart song of Hugh Jackman's Memphis character), so only about half of the "Kiss" lyrics are covered.

Pretty small stuff. I'm not sure I've ever come across an artist who was anymore fiercely protective of their art than Prince.

Brendan said:

There's a few actually. The rolling stones were RUTHLESS against the verve and Abba and zeppelin DO NOT like people sampling their music.

Cool! But didn't I read he hated it at first and didn't know how to tell Prince?!
[Edited 11/14/06 3:46am]

“The movie said something to me.”

man when i found out about the rolling stones and the verve situation i couldnt believe it! I mean the stones got 100% of the rights to that whole album the verve did! And the sample they used was hardly breached copy write laws, and they basically broke up a good band!

great story!

RUHip2TheJive said:

That part made me giggle too.

psychodelicide said:

There must be subliminal mind control stuff in that movie!!!

kcwm said:

I haven't actually heard the stones song; what is it?

FruitToAttractBears said:

That's what I'm thinking too.

Give him 2 weeks??? He's gotten slooooow...

RUHip2TheJive said:

I love that comment~

You can really hear it in the song~
[Edited 11/14/06 10:12am]

I just saw the movie and it was okay.

The songs from Prince that I heard were Kiss and another one, (don't know the title), during the ending credits. I didn't get to stay the entire time because I was being rushed

The only thing that I thought was off about the movie was that it was a little too serious than I thought it was going to be - It had a message.

I thought it was going to be a cute movie like Finding Nemo or something.

wlcm2thdwn said:

No -- that was a hypothetical. As in...when Prince said he was going to write a song, what would they do if Prince wrote the song and they hated it?

Unfortunately, that turned into a wire headline that read something to the effect of, "How do you tell Prince you hate his song?"

Which never happened.