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Elizabeth Banks to Star in Movie About MTV’s 1986 “Win a Date With Prince” Contest

PHILADELPHIA, PA - JULY 26: Actress Elizabeth Banks arrives on stage during the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 26, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton received the number of votes needed to secure the party's nomination. An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Philadelphia, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media. The four-day Democratic National Convention kicked off July 25. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

In 1986, MTV hosted a “Win a Date With Prince” contest as part of a promotional push for the late music legend’s film Under the Cherry Moon. The winner was Lisa Barber, a 20-year-old hotel worker who saw her small hometown of Sheridan, Wyoming, become the center of a brief media frenzy when Prince traveled there to meet her. (The contest rules stipulated that he would premiere the film and perform a concert wherever the winner lived.) Now, the surreal episode is being turned into a feature film starring and produced by Elizabeth Banks, Deadline reports.

The movie will be based on a Daily Beast story from last year entitled When Prince Made a Chambermaid His Queen for a Day, which detailed the “coke-fueled chaos” that went on behind the scenes of MTV and Prince’s production in Sheridan, where “cattle outnumber people by more than two to one.” The film will focus on the stories of Barber and Robyn Riggs, a young publicist who was instrumental in putting the event together. According to Deadline, Prince himself will not be portrayed by an actor in the film, but his “presence will hover through” it. Read the original Daily Beast story here, and watch a brief snippet of footage from Prince landing in Wyoming below.