It’s about to be a busy year for director Ryan Coogler, as the filmmaker is working on a Prince jukebox musical feature.
Confirmed by the Hollywood Reporter, Coogler will produce the untitled jukebox musical of Prince songs for Universal Pictures after being in development since 2018, hails from Proximity Media and has a script by Bryan Edward Hill.
Producers include Coogler, Zinzi Coogler and Sev Ohanian, alongside Atom Factory’s Troy Carter and Universal Music Publishing Group chair Jody Gerson. Proximity’s Rebecca Cho is an executive producer.
Prince is a music icon known for an array of hits, including “When Doves Cry,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” “Kiss” and “Batdance,” which all peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. His film credits include starring in Albert Magnoli’s 1984 rock musical Purple Rain, with the Warner Bros. cult classic — which picked up the Oscar for best original song score — hitting its 40th anniversary this July.
It’s important to note, Hill’s script is not a Prince biopic, but an original story inspired by Prince, who died in 2016, and his music.
It was also announced, Coogler’s forthcoming movie, is an untitled project with Warner Bros. starring Michael B. Jordan set to release on March 7, 2025, after a fierce bidding war. This would be Coogler and Jordan’s fourth pairing together after collaborating on Fruitvale Station (2013), Creed (2015) and Black Panther (2018).
More recently, Coogler directed the 2022 Marvel sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. He is credited with working on the lyrics to Rihanna’s song “Lift Me Up” from the film’s soundtrack, with the track earning him Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy nominations.
