SHOPPING AROUND - Eddie Murphy Attached To Richard Pryor Biopic
Eddie Murphy as Richard Pryor...? Why not! Although, when it comes to biopics, I prefer that the actors/actresses playing the role of the person whose life story is being retold, be unknowns. It's just less distracting.
I'm no Richard Pryor aficionado, so I can't really say anything genuinely profound about this, one way or the other, so I'll leave it to you "Pryor pros."
According to Entertainment Weekly:
Bill Condon shopping Richard Pryor biopic, with Eddie Murphy attached
Writer/director Bill Condon, who just completed his debut run as producer of the 2009 Academy Awards, is shopping his script Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said? to the studio subsidiaries and independent distributors around town. Eddie Murphy is attached to star.
Sources tell EW.com that Fox Searchlight, the studio behind this year's big Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire, is interested in the film. The studio, which declined comment, has a relationship with Condon, having partnered with the director on his 2004 feature Kinsey.
Condon, who most recently wrote and directed Dreamgirls, had the Pryor biopic set up at The Weinstein Company but was able to pull it out when the indie outfit put it into turnaround. He initially was hoping to secure $30 million to produce the film, but that number, sources say, has dropped down to $25 million.
Murphy, who has featured Pryor impersonations in his act as far back as the 1987 concert movie Raw, seems a likely choice for this role.
Recall …Is It Something I Said? was the title of Pryor's 1976 Grammy Award winning release. It won for Best Comedy Recording.
via EW
