It’s Showtime: Prince concert film ‘Sign o' The Times’ gets wide release

Prince’s 'Sign o' The Times' concert film is climbing out of the vault in time for its 30th anniversary.

Through a new arrangement announced Wednesday, premium cable and satellite television network Showtime will beam the film on American TV next month for the first time in more than a decade.

Shot largely at his Paisley Park Studios in Minnesota and on dates in the Netherlands and Belgium, the Purple One wrote, directed and financed the film as a companion to the 1987 tour in support of his Grammy-nominated double album of the same name.

Though welcomed by fans and critics as an undistilled study of the master in action, the film was never given any kind of official DVD release in the U.S., though it has been available on DVD and Blu-ray in the U.K., Canada and Australia.

Showtime has scheduled a Sept. 16 U.S. release for the film, which features classics “Little Red Corvette” and “U Got the Look” and sees Prince accompanied on stage by Sheena Easton and drummer Sheila E. 'Sign o' The Times' will stream on demand from Sept. 17.

It’s been 16 months since his death, though the business around Prince's musical legacy has never been livelier. An official traveling exhibit of Prince memorabilia will go on display in London from October 27 for 21 days, the same span as his legendary residency at the same venue in 2007. And just last month, a U.S. court voided Universal Music Group’s $31 million deal with Prince’s estate in a ruling which should return a stack of his recorded-music rights to the negotiating table.