After the success of Prince's 'Purple Rain' film in 1984,there were a TON of rumors about numerous film projects that he was supposedly planning to make.After awhile,I stopped believing many of these stories,because some of them were just too far-fetched.Did any of you ever hear of these rumored projects?...


***"Prince Of Darkness and The Morning Star"(1985)---Supposedly,this was a movie project that Prince was considering immediately after 'Purple Rain'.I have no details on what it was supposed to be about.

***"The Dawn"(1986)---On another thread,we were discussing this movie.It seems like he was serious about it,and even recorded three tunes for the soundtrack ("Crucial","When The Dawn Of The Morning Comes" and "The Coco Boys").

***"Camille"(1986/87)---Apparently,Prince was planning to do a movie about his alter ego Camille! The story would have Prince playing the "Camille" character throughout the whole fim,then transform into "Prince" at the very end.Interesting concept on paper,but it probably would have been a fiasco,dontcha think?


***"The Jimi Hendrix Story"---In 1988,there were all these rumors that Prince was gonna play Jimi Hendrix in a movie.The rumors became so widespread that,Prince's manager at the time,Steven Fargnoli,actually had to issue a denial to the press,saying that it's all just speculation.

***Untitled project(1989)---In 1989,I heard a rumor about a film that involves house music!! In this story,Prince plays a musician who goes to a party in Chicago and is introduced to house music.He then takes up the cause of popularizing this music to the nation.

***"The Dark Side Of The Moon"(1989)---This was supposed to be a documentary on Prince and his career.It was mentioned in 1989 by Albert Magnoli (who was Prince's manager at the time),so it's a legit project.Too bad it never materialized.

***"The Dawn"(1989)---In '89,this film was once again mentioned,only this time it was gonna be a "street-oriented sequel to 'Graffiti Bridge".

***"The Robert Johnson Story"(1989)---In this film,Prince was gonna play Robert Johnson,the infamous Blues musician from the 30s.It would have been interesting,dontcha think?


***"The Sammy Davis Jr. Story"(1990)---There's a story that,shortly after Davis' death in late 1990,Prince contacted his wife Altovise and expressed interest in playing him in a movie!! According to the tale,Altovise was slightly intrigued at the thought.

***"Saturday Night Fever"(remake,1991/92)---Go ahead and laugh,but in the early 90s,one of the Prince fanzines (who shall remain nameless,to avoid embarrassment and ridicule...lol) actually reported that Prince was planning a remake of the 1977 hit film 'Saturday Night Fever'!!!

***Untitled project (1992)---Uptown reported that,right after 'Diamonds And Pearls',Prince recorded a 16-track movie soundtrack for yet another film.There aren't any details about this project,but the soundtrack was rumored to contain songs like "A Letter 4 Miles".My guess is,if this project really existed,it was just an early version of what became the "Three Chains O Gold" film.


***"West Side Story"(remake,mid-90s)---There's a funny story that says,in the mid-90s,Prince was interested in doing a remake of 'West Side Story" and that he (once again) called up Madonna and asked her to co-star with him!! I told you that some of these tales were far-fetched...lol...

***"Political musical"(late 90s)---There was a rumor in the late 90s that Prince was planning to do a "political musical" (his own words).Around this time,Spike Lee mentioned that he would love to do a musical with Prince.

DavidEye said:

Never heard of 'em...



That would have been hard to pull off...



P would've been SO much better than that dude who played the role in that Showtime movie...



THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN MADE!!!



Interesting...



I can't see it...



He would have been setting himself up for some serious hatred, nobody should try to fuck with that movie...



3 Chains O Gold was a film???



Why was he dying to act w/ Madonna so badly?? No pun intended...



Now that just frickin' scares me... :O Spike & Prince together would come up with some crazy, Al Sharpton meets George Clinton type shit...

No,'Three Chains O Gold' was not a film,just a collection of linked music videos.But,perhaps at an early stage,he envisioned the whole concept (rock-star-meets-young-Egyptian Princess-in-distress-and-they-fall-in-love-as-they battle the-evil 7) as a possible movie?


Btw,at the time of the Jimi Hendrix film rumors,Eddie Murphy was also very interested in portraying Jimi.

Also, Prince was rumored to play Robin in the first Batman movie. The original script had Prince (or Michael J. Fox) as Robin...he was only supposed to be in the end of the movie, and was supposed to be killed by the Joker. He was going to play the "Dick Grayson" Robin, not Jason Todd or Tim Drake.

DavidEye said:

I gotta quote Nova...

DA HORROR!

AtlantaHatGuy said:

Wow, that just doesn't sit well w/ me...

CalhounSq said:

I remember my sister was very impressed with the "Partyman" video.She went so far as to suggest that "they should have let Prince play the Joker in the movie!"

They need to make "The Dark Side of the Moon". That would be a killer movie.

LittlePill said:

I hear ya! Maybe we should petition Prince to do it

DavidEye said:

Yea, but wouldn't he look @ it & laugh??

CalhounSq said:

Men who runaround with younger boys in tight-fitting animal suits is just plain ol' GAY!!!

I also heard a rumour that Little Ritchard wanted Prince to play him in his life story that was aired last year in the US. The role went to some unknown guy in the end I think.

"The Dark Side of the Moon" - probably became "Prince - A musical portrait" ?

"Political Musical" - was that "I'll do anything" ? Or maybe "Girl 6" ?

"The Robert Johnson story" could of been great. I wonder what happened ? Prince being all those others in films would of been really cheesey, but Robert Johnson could of been cool. And he could of showed off some ace acoustic guitar work !

Soapstone said:

LOL, the unknown guy is Leon. He's been in some films:

Waiting to Exhale
Above the Rim
The Five Heartbeats

If none of that rings a bell, he's the dude in Madonna's "Like a Prayer" video...

james said:

But that's not a full-blown doc, is it?

Ages ago I asked if there will be a DVD of "Under the cherrymoon" anybody know now ?

Thanks in advance,
Jan

CalhounSq said:

It's been a while since I've watched it! I don't think it covered his whole career, but it was a documentary made about him and I think it was made around '88/'89. ?

I saw the Spike Lee thing in BET news a while ago where they talked about this.

What about the 'Kevin Smith' documentary on 'The Rainbow Children'...?

That would have been interesting to say the least...

Blue

yeah in 88 the Robert Johnson Story made some Rounds from the Paisley Park Camp.but Prince would have had too trim His Do too Portray Robert Johnson.I heard about the other titles DavidEye Mentioned.heard He called Little Richard&said Yes He would do it but Little Richard told Him he found somebody else already for the Role.He was gonna do a Film for the "Controversy" TOur as well.also Him&Vanity Shot some footage prior too "Purple Rain" Coming out as well.as for the Jimi Hendrix Story I Heard about that one as early as 1985 in the Magazine Rock&Soul.if the 80's were as Kind too Direct Too Video as the past Decade was then Prince probably would have as many Films there as Snoop Dogg,Master P,etc... but it was a different time period."Graffti Bridge" was rumored too be going direct too video&some folks were laughing.nowadays direct too video has a Street edge too it but back in the day you'd get Laughed at for doing that especially if the film was New. as for Leon:He did a Better job in Five Heartbeats&as David Ruffin on The Temptations TV Mini-Series IMHO.I wasn't feeling Him as Little Richard.

DavidEye said:

I remember that rumour,I heard somewhere that Prince was so keen to play him, he turned up for a meeting about it dressed exactly like Jimi...

Probably what he was wearing from day to day anyway.

Prince as Jimi Hendrix simply would not have worked. I read some of the comments on the Hendrix newsgroup about the Showtime movie. The Hendrix fans are as nit picky and anal as Prince fans. The fans carefully studied that film, the actor, and everything about the movie. They noticed that the actor was not really playing the guitar and nothing about him resembled Hendrix except for his hands.

Hendrix fans reacted the same way that Prince fans react to Prince impersonators.

A film project would be great for Prince in 2003, but he should stay away from playing autobiographical roles. A fictional character, such as a record label exec or a club owner would suit him well.

Batdance said:

well with Jimi Hendrix you have too Capture so Many Dynamics&also the time Period.not too mention the World He saw&How He brought His Own Fusion of Music&Life Together.but somewhere along the line He knew His Time was Short.