I have a PhD in Film Studies with a focus on Hollywood and American indie cinema, so I'd like to think I know a thing or two about Hollywood. Those of you saying Hollywood is racist and has always been racist... there's some truth to that, however any discussion of "Hollywood" as one consistently hegemonic set of ideas is overly general. If you want to know why Hollywood makes few films for an African American audience, take a look at the size of the black population compared to the white population. Hollywood is a business as well as an art form, and that has always been true. Filmmaking is expensive, filmmakers want the biggest return on their investment. Notice how Force Awakens had a black protagonist and a white woman? Hollywood has done that for years as a strategy to bring in crossover audiences because they're afraid a woman or a black man might not carry the movie to audiences alone (think of all those detective movies where a black guy teams up with a white woman but they never hook up). If a Hollywood studio was going to release a Prince biopic and market it worldwide, yes, there is a built-in audience and dollars there, so it could definitely get off the ground, but the immediate worry probably has less to do with their racism than with racism (or more mild disinterest) on the part of domestic whites and international audiences. Hollywood wants to sell its films to the big audiences in China. Yes, there are Prince fans in China, but the black audience is probably smaller.

Here's another issue: Hollywood films have to follow a tidy narrative formula so there are emotional ups and downs, all the plot points have to align. Remember Ray? Ray is not a life story of Ray Charles, it had to be written around a simple redemption narrative that ended partway through his career (a Prince biopic would probably end around the 2004 'comeback', followed by a title saying "Prince went on to play the 02 arena 21 nights in a row, sold this many albums, yadda yadda..." Hollywood films fit together like software, with certain key elements. So keep in mind: who's the consistent leading lady in a Prince biopic? Exactly.

There are two solutions here: make a movie about a very discreet period in Prince's career that can suit a typical narrative trajectory (this is what they did for the Miles film), say, Prince's rise to superstardom ending around Purple Rain, or, maybe, Prince's 90s "conflict years" because there's a consistent leading lady and a lot of drama, ending with the 2004 conflict. The other way to do it is like Todd Haynes' I'm Not There, where Haynes decided Dylan was too complicated to be represented "accurately" (let's face it, the best Hollywood films about real occurrences are the ones that acknowledge they're not fucking "real" or "true" - and if you expect realism from Hollywood, prepare to be disappointed) so he cast whites, blacks, gays, straights, kids and adults. I'm sure we'll all agree there is no one actor who can do Prince justice (though Tom Cruise would deliver in the height department). Casting a white actor to play Prince in blackface = racist. Casting a big cast to cover different points in his career (again, I'm Not There did not account for half of Dylan's career), including white people not in blackface to demonstrate Prince's appeal across racial boundaries = a pretty damn good idea, if you ask me. Black, white, Puerto Rican, everybody just a freakin'. Whites have played Prince before, ie. SNL, and I don't remember Prince being hurt. I doubt anyone would be offended if a movie came out where a white woman played Prince which was obviously a tribute but not meant to be "accurate." Cast people of different ages, races, genders and sexualities, including trans people. I'm just tossing off ideas, but Prince's life and career could be told as a series of well-edited (mixed) ideas. Prince Remixed.

Fuck it, I should this script.

I should "write" this script. Immediately disqualified myself from writing anything.

ufoclub said:

Adorecream said:

violectrica said:

ufoclub said:

It would take a big budget and CG to get it right.

Do they use cg on faces? Does it look right?

It's getting really good. They use it to change the age of actor for flashbacks... in a few years I'm sure it will be flawless.

These movies never work imho; no one can play a performer without it descending into caricature. I'd hate to see that happen to His Royal Badness.

ya, i always prefer simple documentaries, you get the real thing who no one can compare to. Movies always feel like they have to do this or do that with the truth for stupid reasons, just fucks it all up. For every biopic x, Dragon,Ali, I can think of several documentaries that I'd rather re-watch. Elvis, however, the carpenter film was an exception.

With all the footage that was recorded, as well as countless media footage, there would be plenty of material to flesh out a multi-hour documentary with minimal naration. Just let the performances, the behind-the-scenes and interviews with all those that were intimately involved throughtout the years do the talking.

violectrica said:

Adorecream said:

I agree with most of the comments, but the actor has to be Black who plays Prince. Prince was veryproud of his blackness. Hitn Run Phase 2 his last album was one of the blackest he had doen with all the funkhorns and songs like Black Muse, Baltimore, Look at me look at u etc.

.

Sure get in whites to play people like Susannah Melvoin, Owen Husney, Steve Fargnoli etc, but I would accommodate a mixed person like say Justin Guarini to play Prince at some parts of his career like the Lovesexy to Gold Experience when he was very pale. But otherwise we could almost get Malik Yoba or even Kele Okereke or one of those British Nigerian guys with with O names for the first 21 years and last 5 (Keep forgetting Olajuwon or something). I mean Prince looked pretty darkskinned right up to the Controversy era and even early 1999 ear like my Avatar.

.

Putting a white guy into play Prince would destroy the credibility of the movie and I know Prince himself, his soul would be insulted. lways have a brother play a brother. I agree any member of the Smollett family or even a DeBrage would be perfect (Chico Debarge for instance does look like him).

I'm not a purist or anything, and I'm actually a white girl, but I think it might be a little bit insensitive to the black lives matter movement, and a little Rachel Dolezal-y to cast a white guy. Even though a white actor could do it meritoriously, anyone casting who did that would have to be a political moron. Now Purple Rain erroneously cast Prince's mom as white when Mattie is black but this was a fictional portrayal so... I would theorize that it is OK for a mixed race person to do it as well. I could be fine with that.

Not sure how to address your post here, but Justin Guarini is actually mixed race, his father is black and his mother Italian.

Everybody should try and watch this, its on yewtube and it is exactly how I would like to see in a biopic of Prince, it is a lot better than the standard made for TV/Straight to DVD movie.

.

(youtube)https://youtu.be/LiMWUCziLww(\youtube)

[Edited 5/1/16 3:56am]

As a casting director i would say please dont do it unless its done right.But,they have to have family involvement and must get music rights.PLEASE hope they get the music rights because if they dont someone else will sing as him in the movie.Make sure its on cbs or nbc not mtv or hbo or netflix.Do a nationwide casting and hope you find a diamond.Have it run over 3/4 nights 8pm-11 pm mon -thurs prime time. Start from childhood.Sorry to break this to everyone but,people are calling for el debarge to play prince.same hair,color skin,short and same falsetta.I wouldn't

If they make any kind of movie about Prince, I hope it's only a documentary style movie with only Prince in it..New concert footage, interviews he's done, that kind of thing...I've always found biographical movies with actors to be too cheesy for me.

sfinky1 said:

No. Just no.

I could not watch it.

Prince told his story. Anything else is someone's take on him.

Prince's story is in his music.

BklynDiamond said:

sfinky1 said:

No. Just no.

I could not watch it.

Prince told his story. Anything else is someone's take on him.

Prince's story is in his music.

There probably will be an "American Masters" PBS documentary, maybe a book, DVD and CDs to go along with the release.

I'd rather see them go the creative route and do an animated movie based on his life, and let the music tell the story.

Who can play him? Not Andre 3000 please.

toshi said:

Who can play him? Not Andre 3000 please.

Well, he already played Jimi Hendrix. We don't need Andfe being Leon, who played David Ruffin and Little Richard (and JT Matthews, lol.)

Also no mention on Lenny Kravitz? He does acting now.

What about Jaden Smith?

mtlfan said:

I have a PhD in Film Studies with a focus on Hollywood and American indie cinema, so I'd like to think I know a thing or two about Hollywood. Those of you saying Hollywood is racist and has always been racist... there's some truth to that, however any discussion of "Hollywood" as one consistently hegemonic set of ideas is overly general. If you want to know why Hollywood makes few films for an African American audience, take a look at the size of the black population compared to the white population. Hollywood is a business as well as an art form, and that has always been true. Filmmaking is expensive, filmmakers want the biggest return on their investment. Notice how Force Awakens had a black protagonist and a white woman? Hollywood has done that for years as a strategy to bring in crossover audiences because they're afraid a woman or a black man might not carry the movie to audiences alone (think of all those detective movies where a black guy teams up with a white woman but they never hook up). If a Hollywood studio was going to release a Prince biopic and market it worldwide, yes, there is a built-in audience and dollars there, so it could definitely get off the ground, but the immediate worry probably has less to do with their racism than with racism (or more mild disinterest) on the part of domestic whites and international audiences. Hollywood wants to sell its films to the big audiences in China. Yes, there are Prince fans in China, but the black audience is probably smaller.

Here's another issue: Hollywood films have to follow a tidy narrative formula so there are emotional ups and downs, all the plot points have to align. Remember Ray? Ray is not a life story of Ray Charles, it had to be written around a simple redemption narrative that ended partway through his career (a Prince biopic would probably end around the 2004 'comeback', followed by a title saying "Prince went on to play the 02 arena 21 nights in a row, sold this many albums, yadda yadda..." Hollywood films fit together like software, with certain key elements. So keep in mind: who's the consistent leading lady in a Prince biopic? Exactly.

There are two solutions here: make a movie about a very discreet period in Prince's career that can suit a typical narrative trajectory (this is what they did for the Miles film), say, Prince's rise to superstardom ending around Purple Rain, or, maybe, Prince's 90s "conflict years" because there's a consistent leading lady and a lot of drama, ending with the 2004 conflict. The other way to do it is like Todd Haynes' I'm Not There, where Haynes decided Dylan was too complicated to be represented "accurately" (let's face it, the best Hollywood films about real occurrences are the ones that acknowledge they're not fucking "real" or "true" - and if you expect realism from Hollywood, prepare to be disappointed) so he cast whites, blacks, gays, straights, kids and adults. I'm sure we'll all agree there is no one actor who can do Prince justice (though Tom Cruise would deliver in the height department). Casting a white actor to play Prince in blackface = racist. Casting a big cast to cover different points in his career (again, I'm Not There did not account for half of Dylan's career), including white people not in blackface to demonstrate Prince's appeal across racial boundaries = a pretty damn good idea, if you ask me. Black, white, Puerto Rican, everybody just a freakin'. Whites have played Prince before, ie. SNL, and I don't remember Prince being hurt. I doubt anyone would be offended if a movie came out where a white woman played Prince which was obviously a tribute but not meant to be "accurate." Cast people of different ages, races, genders and sexualities, including trans people. I'm just tossing off ideas, but Prince's life and career could be told as a series of well-edited (mixed) ideas. Prince Remixed.

Fuck it, I should this script.

You bring great points to the discussion

I would make the movie based on the Rick James/Prince tour - have all of those crazy stories play out on the screen for a new generation to see and get into the music

Now there's new outlets like Amazon and Netflix that can pick up such a project. Save the biopic for 10-20 years from now

Thizz said:

I still say Jussie Smollett would be great. Evan Ross is another good choice. Terrance Howard for his attitude alone....would bring the confident/cocky P to life for sure. Kid Cudi would be a good pick too.