#Roommates, the celebrity biopic train continues to run and this time iconic comedian/actor Richard Pryor is up next. It has just been confirmed that “Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris is on board to write, direct and produce a forthcoming biopic about the life of Richard Pryor.
As if he didn’t already have enough on his plate, Kenya Barris has just added a very big project that comedy fans will be eager to check out. According to @HollywoodReporter, Kenya is officially on board to take the helm of a Richard Pryor biopic as the project’s writer, director and producer. In what industry insiders have described as a bidding war for the film, MGM Studios finally landed the rights to it in a very lucrative deal.
In addition to the writing and directing, Kenya Barris will also produce the biopic through his Khalabo Ink Society, along with Richard Pryor’s widow Jennifer Lee Pryor. When discussing his role in the highly-anticipated project, he had this to say:
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“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.”
There is no word yet on if the Richard Pryor biopic will be a theatrical release or drop exclusively on Netflix as part of Kenya’s current $100 million deal with the streaming service.
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