Original hand-edited second draft script for the 1990 film Graffiti Bridge, 35 pages, 8.5 x 11, no date but circa early October 1987. The script features numerous handwritten notations and emendations made by Prince in black ballpoint, with pages 1, 13, 14, and 29 representing the most heavily annotated (26 script pages feature Prince's handwriting). On the first page, Prince adds the opening: “EXT.—‘The Meeting Ground’—consisting of junk, trash, garbage and a fire. A sign hangs above the ground. It says: [‘Welcome home, Ruthie Washington’].” Prince adds notes signaling the entrance or mood of music to several scenes, including: “(Camille appears guitar in hand, deep in thought.) (Music cue. A blue wash engulfs the stage) (New music cue song slows in tempo, key change)” on page 1; “the melody is slow & melancholy” on page 11, referring to a scene in which Camille plays the piano; and “(slow grindin’ number) on page 16, which leads into a rendition of the song ‘Crucial,’ which never made the final version of the film; coincidentally, Prince wrote ‘Crucial’ back in 1986 with the intent of using it for his abandoned film project The Dawn. In fine condition. From the collection of Prince’s former assistant and accompanied by a letter of provenance.
In mid-September of 1987, Prince finished his first script for a musical film project entitled Graffiti Bridge, which featured himself in the lead role as Camille, and costarred Madonna as his former flame, Ruthie Washington. In keeping with his vision of “a musical fantasy shot on theatrical sets,” Prince planned to cast several of his own band members in the film, with these notes mentioning several of their character names—Atlanta Bliss as Joshua, Eric Leeds as Sax, Cat Glover as Vienna, Greg Brooks as Gruff, and Wally Safford as Puff. In mid-October, a brief three-day script conference with Madonna proved disastrous, with the singer-actress publicly ridiculing the script and dismissing any potential collaboration. As a result, the original Graffiti Bridge script was abandoned and the project placed on hiatus until 1989. Graffiti Bridge continued to have script problems and underwent several revisions before a screenplay was finalized on February 7, 1990; the script alterations effectively made the film a quasi-sequel to Purple Rain. Although the film earned negative reviews and poor box-office totals, the Graffiti Bridge soundtrack was regarded highly and reached gold sales figures in both the UK and America.
