Posted by Jboogie But Epps tells VH1.com that there is light at the end of the tunnel. An agreement has just been arranged that will move the film forward with a reworked script to include additional information from "Jokes My Father Never Taught Me: Life, Love, and Loss With Richard Pryor," a recently released memoir by Pryor's daughter Rain. "I think the previous script, which was a great script, was based off of a lot of the knowledge that people already knew about him," Epps tells VH1.com. "It ain't no secret that Richard Pryor got burned up [after lighting himself on fire in 1980 during a drug binge], it ain't no secret he had all these wives, that he was abusive and on drugs. And I think we seen that a bit with [Pryor's autobiographical film] 'JoJo Dancer [Your Life Is Calling].' But this new script is coming from the perspective and eyes of the kids, Rain and Elizabeth, and so forth. So I think people are gonna get a whole other view of what Richard Pryor was thought of in his story." Meanwhile, “Eve’s Bayou” director Kasi Lemmons has signed on to helm the movie, which aims to begin shooting sometime next year. Epps is happy that the film will now include input from Pryor’s children, as the previous screenplay without their recollections and insight had initially given him pause. "It just didn't fly right [with me]," he said. "And I'm glad it didn't. Whenever you want to do a story about someone and don't want to involve their kids, that ain't right. I don't care how good the script was, how true to [life] it was, if you gonna do a movie about someone and the kids were there, you got to make mention of them and let them participate. 'Cause if you don't, that's going too much against the grain."
on 12/20/2006, 3:00 pm
66.66.76.113
*Mike Epps, who has been waiting to shoot his starring role in a long-gestating Richard Pryor biopic, says the project has stalled due to a dispute between Pryor's first and second wives over his assets. 
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