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Elizabeth Banks to Star In, Produce Film About Winning a Date With Prince

August 15, 2018 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas

Elizabeth Banks is set to produce and star in a film based on the true story of a “Win A Date With Prince” contest. Deadline reports that Banks will topline Queen for a Day for Paramount Players. Flora Greeson is rewriting the first draft of trhe script by Josh Stolberg

The film is based on the Daily Beast story “When Prince Made a Chambermaid His Queen for a Day” by Chris Lee, which recounts the true story of when Warner Bros. created a contest to promote Under the Cherry Moon in 1986. The contest saw the 10,000th caller won a date with the legendary pop star. The studio would also stage a premiere of Under the Cherry Moon in the winner’s hometown, followed by a concert toplined by Prince and The Revolution.

Lisa Barber, a young woman in Sheridan, Wyoming who cleaned hotels, won the contest. The film will be about how event changed the lives of two very different women — the Manhattan PR exec responsible for the event’s success and the shy, awkward contest winner from Wyoming, whose town becomes the unexpected nexus of all things Prince for one unforgettable night.

Prince will not appear directly in the film, but his “presence will hover through the film.”