Stories like this really make you wonder about the decision makers in the film industry.
Purple Rain was Prince's most iconic film appearance and spawned an iconic soundtrack and song, but according to the film's director, Albert Magnoli, Warner Bros. originally had other ideas about who they thought should star in the lead role of 'The Kid'.
He said that when Prince's Manager, Robert Cavallo, was shopping the script around Hollywood in 1983, they were unprepared with the quite frankly appalling response they got.
"Cavallo realized there might be studio interest in the material, so they wanted me to come and speak to various studios. I didn’t really want to do that. I felt that once a studio is involved, then you have the studio interference thing. I said, “We have a million dollars,” and Bob said, “If we don’t have to spend our own money that would be fantastic.”
The first meeting at Warner Brothers was with the head of the studio and production and some executives, and the first thing they said was, “Is it possible to ask if John Travolta can play Prince?” I looked at [Prince’s managers] and thought, “This is what I’m talking about. Welcome to this world.”
Now we know Travolta can be quite versatile as his performance as Bob Shapiro in The People v OJ Simpson proved, but could you imagine it?
Apparently that wasn't the only surprising role that Travolta was being talked up for around that time. He was also earmarked to star alongside Sylvester Stallone in The Godfather Part III. No, seriously.
