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A new musical inspired by the music and songs by Prince (2958-2016) has been greenlighted by Universal Pictures. The movie is still without an official title and will be produced by Ryan Coogler through his company Proximity Media. Zinzi Cooper and Sev Ohanian will be working at this upcoming project as producers together with Jody Gerson (CEO at Universal Music Publishing Group), while Rebecca Cho will figure as executive producer. A first draft of the musical has been written by Bryan Edward Hill (Titans series on television), other versions of the screenplay are to be expected in the next few weeks.
Proximity Media is a multimedia production company founded by Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Cooper and Sev Ohanian and co-founded by Archie Davis, Peter Nicks and the two-time Academy Award winner Ludwig Göransson, composer of Black Panther and Oppenheimer. In the last few years Proximity Media produced among others Judah and the Black Messiah, Space Jam: A New Legacy and the documentary Stephen Curry: Underrated.
One of the most anticipated productions by Proximity Media will be for Warner Bros, a new movie directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan. The couple started working together with Fruitvale Station and then realized the blockbusters Creed and Black Panther. Their new collaboration, still untitled, will be released in theaters next March.
It is still unknown which songs by Prince will be used in this sort of juke-box musical. The artist won an Academy Award for the best original song thanks to Purple Rain (1984) which he also starred in. In 1989 Prince composed four songs for the blockbuster Batman directed by Tim Burton. As an actor Price also acted in Under the Cherry Moon (1986) and Graffiti Bridge (1990), both inspired by his own albums. These two movies didn’t achieve the same success as the acclaimed Purple Rain.
The InSneider first reported the news.