L-R: Mikes Epps, Richard Pryor, Oprah Winfrey, Eddie Murphy, Lee Daniels
After talking about this project for over a year, its official; The Weinstein Company is ready to greenlight the
Richard Pryor biopic. Along with Mike Epps in the title role of Richard Pryor, the new cast additions are;
Oprah Winfrey will play Pryor’s grandmother, who ran a brothel and raised the iconic comic there; Eddie
Murphy will play Pryor’s father, Leroy “Buck Carter” Pryor, and Kate Hudson is set to play Pryor’s widow,
Jennifer Lee Pryor. Lee Daniels, who worked with Weinstein and Winfrey on the blockbuster Lee Daniels’
The Butler, will start production in March, after wrapping up the second season of his hit FOX series Empire.
The script is by Bill Condon and Daniels’ Empire collaborator Danny Strong, and Bruce Cohen and Jennifer
Lee Pryor are deeply involved in the process as producers. There are compelling storylines that will create
interest in this film beyond Pryor’s barrier-breaking accomplishments on the standup stage, on TV and in
the movies with his politically charged, blue humor. Winfrey is very particular in the roles she plays–The
Butler and Selma were the last two–and it is unexpected that she will play the brothel owner Marie Carter,
who raised Pryor in a house of ill repute, where her own daughter and Pryor’s biological mother worked.
According to reports we hear actor
and comedian Jamie Foxx is in talks to
board Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver
opposite Lily James and Ansel Elgort.
Foxx is set to play a crime boss who
coerces a young, talented getaway
driver to work for him. Elgort pays the
driver, who relies on the beat of his
personal soundtrack to be the best. He
must face the music when a doomed
heist threatens his life, love and
freedom. Foxx is currently filming Baran
Bo Odar’s Sleepless Nights, where he
stars as a cop with a connection to the
criminal underworld scours a nightclub
in search of his kidnapped son. The film
is based on the 2011 French film Nuit
Blanche.
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Lily
James
Ansel
Elgort
Jamie Foxx