Tracy Morgan is in talks to portray outrageous comic Redd Foxx in director Lee Daniels’ upcoming Richard Pryor biopic. The comedian released a statement saying, “Mr. Foxx, I hope I do you justice!”.
Advertisement
Mike Epps is already set to play Pryor in The Weinstein Company project, with Kate Hudson playing his wife, Jennifer.
Redd Foxx was an influential figure in comedy, and especially so in the life of Richard Pryor.
And now that Morgan could potentially join the cast, surely other famous comedians will be cast as 60s, 70s, and 80s comedy stars that worked with Pryor over the years.
We’ve seen plenty of life stories about entertainers, especially ones with troubled childhoods, and Richard Pryor’s rise to fame is certainly rife with struggles, complete with a grandmother (to be played by Oprah Winfrey) who ran a brothel and abused him.
Lee Daniels, who directed the 2013 blockbuster smash hit The Butler, is taking the helm on Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said? Foxx, of course, is known for starring in the classic TV sitcomSanford and Son, but is perhaps lesser known for giving Pryor his start by allowing Pryor to open for him in the comedy club he owned.
Advertisement
Foxx and Pryor both appeared in Eddie Murphy’s 1989 movie “Harlem Nights”. It’s yet one more step in Tracy’s comeback bid, after his profession was derailed when he suffered a traumatic brain injury in a auto accident in that killed his acceptable mate, pal on the New Jersey Turnpike in Jun. 2014.
