JOE spoke to the movie's writer to see what was going on with the project.
Richard Pryor is one of those people that is calling out for a movie to be made about his life. Even before his passing in 2005, Martin Scorsese was rumoured to be attached to a biopic about the comedy star.
In the years since, everyone from Eddie Murphy to Damon Wayans to Chris Rock to Mike Epps has been attached to potentially play Pryor, and Walter Hill (Brewster's Millions), Kasi Lemmons (Luke Cage), and more lined up for the director's chair.
Perhaps the closest anyone has come recently to having a movie about the man made is Oscar-winner Bill Condon.
He has been behind some biographies before, having directed Kinsey (about famed sexuality researcher Albert Kinsey), Gods & Monsters (on the last days in the life of horror director James Whale), and The Fifth Estate (about Julian Assange), so he knows his way around a biopic.
JOE was lucky enough to chat to the director in the run-up to the release of his new movie The Good Liar, dealing with an aging con-artist (Ian McKellan) and his latest mark (Helen Mirren), but while we were talking, we had to ask what was going on with the project titled Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said?, which is currently listed on his IMDb page.
"Oh God, that is a heartbreaker, I have to say," Condon told us. "I spent two years writing that script, right after I finished Dreamgirls. And then another... there really was a big gap there for me. Five year gap in between making movies, between writing it and almost getting it made.
"We came very, very close, but we never could get it together. That script is still owned, I think, by Harvey Weinstein, so I don't know that there is much of a future to that, unfortunately.
"I'm sure [a] Richard Pryor [movie] will be made eventually, but this [not being made] is just one of those sad things that happens."
Listen to our conversation in full, as well as our chat with one of The Good Liar's stars, Russel Tovey, right here:
Or you can listen to the interview on your preferred podcast by clicking here.
Meanwhile, check out the trailer for Condon's new movie The Good Liar below, ahead of its release in Irish cinemas on Friday 8 November:
Clip via Warner Bros. UK
