Earlier this year it seemed settled that Eddie Murphy would be playing his hero Richard Pryor, in Bill Condon's biopic Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said?. Now however, following disagreements with previous studio Paramount (it's now set up at Sony), it seems that Murphy is off the project, and Marlon Wayans is in "advanced talks" to step into his shoes.
It's one of the great might-have-beens, and it seems tragic given Murphy's recent execrable form that he won't be reuniting with the director of Dreamgirls, his best role in years (although his current lowbrow niche almost unfailingly cleans up at the box office). Anyone for Norbit? Amazingly, yes.
All is not lost though, since anyone who's seen Darren Aronofsky's Requiem For a Dream will know that Wayans is capable of much more than the Scary Movies and White Chicks (and indeed Norbit) he's been churning out in the last decade. Pryor's life story will require untouchable comedy chops combined with the ability to address tragic drama, assuming the film won't shy away from Pryor's infamous freebasing near-death and slow decline. A 13-minute screen-test in which Wayans "transformed into Pryor" apparently "blew the producers away", and it seems the deal is all done bar the actual finalised contract.
The film's production company is Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions. Chris Rock and Pryor's widow Jennifer Lee Pryor are among the producers.