My entire basis of anticipation of Eddie Murphy as Richard Pryor was based solely on his Richard Pryor impression he does in his standup features. He nailed everything about Pryor’s sound and act. So I was leaning toward hopefulness and waited to see.
But that isn’t happening anymore because Eddie is off the project and word has it that Marlon Wayons is going to replace him.
Get the Big Picture says:
Murphy and Paramount had “conflicts,” but let’s be honest about it: He made $20 million or more for Meet Dave and Imagine That, which is a little less than both movies made combined in the US.
So Murphy moved on, leaving the film without its central figure. Entertainment Weekly says Wayans is in “advanced discussions” to play Pryor, and based solely on his work in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream, he might be able to pull it off. Producers were apparently impressed enough by a transformative screen test to stop their search, so we’ll see.
They seem pretty impressed with his screen test that they are currently not taking other auditions for now, so we will have to wait and see.
Again.
