Complete original first draft copy of the script for Purple Rain, 8.5 x 11, 106 pages, with 12 additional 'Q' pages, code for the film’s alternate ending, with the included cover memorandum headed “RE: ‘Q’ Pages / ‘Q’ Scenes.” The main script’s title page reads “Purple Rain, Screenplay by Albert Magnoli, Formerly Dreams by William Blinn, Production No. 8301, First Draft, 29 August 1983,” with Starr Films contact information to the lower left. The script begins with Prince's famous voiceover from the beginning of 'Let's Go Crazy': “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life. Electric word life, it means forever and that's a mighty long time. But I'm here to tell you that there's something else — the afterworld." This first draft casts Vanity, rather than Apollonia, as Prince's love interest in the classic film. Several pages of the script, which is housed in a three-ring binder, are numbered and annotated in black ink.
Included with the first draft is the film’s rare 45-page ‘Shooting Schedule,’ which offers a day-by-day breakdown of how Purple Rain was successfully planned and filmed. It features four columns on each page marked “Camera Day & Date Location,” “Set/Scene/Pgs/D or N,” “Actors Working,” and “Vehicles/Props/Notes,” with the top of the title page listing production number “#8301,” start date “Nov. 1, 1983,” close date “Dec. 22, 1983,” camera days “44,” and the names of the production heads, including director Albert Magnoli.
Completing the lot are numerous other rare production documents that were exclusively distributed to the film’s cast and crew members, including:
- a group of five Water Production, Inc. ‘Call Sheets’ for Purple Rain, No. 8301, dated November 23, 26, and 30, 1983, and December 1 and 13, 1983, each listing Prince as a cast player, and the December 1st sheet including a layout of the ‘Main Level - 1st. Avenue Club.’
- 8-page ‘Revised, One-Line Schedule’ for Purple Rain shooting locations
- 6-page ‘Crew List,’ November 8, 1983
- ‘Staff and Crew List,’ two pages, November 30, 1983
- ‘Hotel Crew List,’ two pages, October 19, 1983, with ‘Hotel Layout, 1st Floor’ sheet indicating hotel rooms for the production departments
- ‘Set List’ for the shooting locations of Purple Rain
- Purple Rain ‘Production Office’ memo from November 25, 1983, outlining a security breach by Prince’s stand-in Byron Hechter
- Purple Rain memo from Tony Brand, first assistant director, regarding ‘Set Security & Information,’ October 13, 1983
- 2-page photocopy of Prince’s handwritten lyrics for ‘Sex Shooter’; and handwritten lyrics for ‘Wednesday,’ accomplished in pencil by an unknown hand. In overall fine condition.
Accompanied by a signed letter of authenticity from Matthew Quast, who worked as a production film sound mixer and playback operator on the Prince films Purple Rain, Sign o' the Times, and Graffiti Bridge. He writes: “I received this Purple Rain script and all the numerous included documents [from]…the producers at the beginning of production on Purple Rain in October of 1983. This is the first draft, dated 29 August 1983 written with Vanity's dialogue when she was originally cast in the role, but she subsequently turned it down and Apollonia Kotero was cast. It also contains numerous blue script revision pages…[and] 12 rare ‘Q’ pages for the alternate ending of the film, where Prince's parents do NOT die, which are the scenes that were used in the film."
