A biopic on legendary comedian Richard Pryor has long been one of Hollywood’s Holy Grails. Eddie Murphy, a longtime close friend to Pryor, was going to play him in a film directed by Bill Condon (Dreamgirls), but that never happened. Years later, Murphy was going to play Pryor’s father in a film starring Mike Epps and Oprah Winfrey, with Lee Daniels (The Butler) attached to direct. That fell through, as well, although Epps did play Pryor in 2016’s Nina Simone film. And now, it’s Black-ish creator Kenya Barris’ time to give it a shot. Let’s see if this one actually happens.
Barris will write and make his directing debut on a Richard Pryor biopic, which MGM just won after a “heated” bidding war for the movie rights. Most recently, Barris was a co-writer on HBO Max’s adaptation of The Witches.
Pryor is one of the greatest raw comedians of all-time, and the inspiration for an entire generation of black comics, including Eddie Murphy who he starred with in 1989’s seminal gangster comedy, Harlem Nights. Pryor had a tough upbringing and his story deserves to be told on the big screen. Raised by his grandmother in a brothel, where his mother was one of the prostitutes, Pryor survived a childhood of abuses and used it as fuel for his vulgar, scathing, but deeply-personal comedy act. A drug habit developed, and the time he accidentally set himself on fire while freebasing cocaine was included in his one directorial effort, Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling. Pryor also made his mark as a screenwriter, co-writing Mel Brooks’ classic Blazing Saddles, and episodes of Sanford & Son. Despite his material being explicitly R-rated, Pryor broke out as an actor in all-ages comedies such as Brewster’s Millions, Superman III, and a series of films with close friend Gene Wilder.
A statement by Barris (via Deadline) reads: “The way Pryor did what he did — with truth and specificity that was somehow self-aware and self-deprecating, and said with an unmatched level of vulnerability – that was the power and impact of his work. Pryor had a voice that was distinctly his and, in many ways, comedy since then has been derivative of what he created. To me, this is a film about that voice, the journey that shaped it, and what it took for it to come to be.”
We’ll see if this happens. Daniels’ film had the full support of the Richard Pryor estate, and Epps had to be personally approved by his widow to get the role. Barris has already jumped through those hoops, as Jennifer Lee Pryor has given her thumbs up, saying her husband and Barris are “creative brothers”
