First it was “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Then came “Rocketman.”
This past weekend, the Universal movie “Yesterday” posted $17 million at the box office with 17 Beatles songs included.
Now I’m told Universal Pictures is fast tracking a movie featuring Prince’s music catalog. I’m told that Universal chief DOnna Langley is “obsessed” with this project.
It was announced last December that Universal had secured the rights to Prince’s songs not necessarily for a biopic but as “signposts” in a narrative story. Maybe one in which no one remembers Prince but a kid from Minneapolis starts playing them after an electrical storm.
Since “Purple Rain” is already taken for the famous Prince movie, and “Little Red Corvette” is overused, my proposal is a movie called “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Or even one titled “Raspberry Beret.”
But that December story has now made Universal execs eager to get the movie going as soon as they find the right project.
So who’s next? David Bowie probably. And the Rolling Stones. My guess is Mick Jagger’s Jagged Films is trying to figure out a way to get their own movie going with the Stones catalog. Meantime, “Girl from the North Country,” a Bob Dylan musical from off Broadway, is heading uptown next year, and certainly to a movie adaptation.
All of this I guess leads back to the two “Mamma Mia” movies that used ABBA songs. And then there will be a movie adaptation of Carole King’s “Beautiful” Broadway musical, using all of her songs.
