Not only does the filmmaker remember all of the political and personal minefields he navigated in order to transform William Blinn’s script, “Dreams,” into the vehicle that propelledto global superstardom, but he recalls the vibe in the rooms and the reactions of nearly everyone involved in its conception.
“Then he said, ‘What would the story be?’ And within 10 seconds I pitched a story that just came to me, which became the infrastructure to what eventually became ‘Cavallo, impressed by the young editor’s chutzpah, offered Magnoli an unexpected opportunity. “He said, ‘Okay kid, what are you going to do about it?’ I said, ‘You’re going to put me on a plane to meet Prince Friday night and I’m going to tell him this story. And if he digs it, then we’re making a motion picture.
Bolstered by that first impression of Prince coming out of that elevator, Magnoli refined his 10-second pitch into something richer and more complete. “I said that the character had a father who made music, and that the father’s violence was put onto the mother and there was a cycle of violence in the house. This kid would feel vulnerable and he would feel isolated. In the third act, the father puts a gun to his head and kills himself.
“This is where you’re from,” Magnoli recalls saying. “We’re making the movie here.” Prince was sold. Cavallo was thrilled. Even Fargnoli was convinced. So with $1 million in development funds, Magnoli set up shop in Minneapolis and began conducting interviews with Prince and members of his band, the Revolution, in order to create the dramatic verisimilitude necessary to tell his story.
“I’m driving them toward the end of the film and I say, ‘And then the father places the gun to his forehead and squeezes the trigger, but he’s not killed,’” he recalls. “I realized that it was a much more effective motion picture if he lived, because it gave Prince an opportunity to reconcile with his parents. At that moment, I realized the picture is more authentic with him living.”
“His body had to be roped into this harness to be hung on a stud in the basement,” he says. “We put him on the hook and he was hanging there, and then I said to one of the grips, touch his body so he’s swinging — and he just went berserk. He had lost total control. That fear was coming from a real place.”
prince Fav album. masterpiece
prince I really like PurpleRain and I wait for that performance in the film. Wow...