Last year we posted that director
Lee Daniels was planning a Janis Joplin biopic starring Amy Adams. The biopic
was supposedly going to be his next project after The Butler, but now it seems
that the director will be changing tunes, from Joplin to the legendary comedian
Richard Pryor.
A Pryor biopic has been in the
works for years now, with Forest Whitaker and Pryor’s widow, Jennifer Pryor to
produce an untitled film based on the life of the actor and stand-up comic,
with Michael B. Jordan, Marlon Wayans and Eddie Murphy being eyed to play the lead.
According to THR, the film, which
will be handled by The Weinstein Company, will primarily cover Richard Pryor’s
life during his 30s, but THR also says that Wayans “at 41 years old is
considered to be the right age for the project”, and they report that Wayans’
screen test “wowed Harvey Weinstein“, but if Wayans at 41 is at the right age
to play a 30 year old Pryor then how about a 26 year old Jordan or a 52 Murphy?
Regardless of who they end up choosing,
Eddie Murphy has a clear advantage over the other two contenders for the role
since Murphy also comes from Pryor’s medium, stand-up comedy while Wayans comes
from sketch work, which is miles away from stand-up, but still has the same sort
of social interaction between entertainer and audience. As for Jordan he seems
to have a clear disadvantage in that department but it’s still a role that he could
pull off.
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