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Foxx Finds His DREAMGIRLS
Both Jamie Foxx and Usher will display their musical skills for DreamWorks and Bill Condon in adaptation of stage musical.
Source: FilmStew.com
Jamie Foxx, who took home an Oscar this year for playing the title role in Ray, has signed on to star with Beyonce in DreamWorks Pictures' big screen adaptation of the stage musical Dreamgirls. In addition, rapper-actor Usher has boarded the Bill Condon-helmed project, which will begin production in January in Los Angeles. Laurence Mark will be the producer on the film version.
In the film, which is a loosely based on the rise of the Supremes, Foxx will play Curtis Taylor Jr., the manager of the female singing group the Dreamettes who helps them shoot to stardom as the Dreams. Usher will star as choreographer C.C. White, while the studio hopes to land Eddie Murphy to play James "Thunder" Early, a womanizing singer who gives the Dreamettes their first big break when he asks them to be his backup singers. Beyonce will lead the Dreams, while the studio has yet to cast the remaining girls.
Patricia Witcher is the executive producer. Adam Goodman and David Beaubaire will be overseeing on behalf of the studio.
Condon also did the adaptation for the Dreamgirls project.
Condon to Direct Murphy as Richard Pryor?
Source: ComingSoon
Writer/director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls) is shopping his script "Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said?" to studios, reports Entertainment Weekly. Eddie Murphy is attached to star.
Sources tell the magazine that Fox Searchlight, the studio behind this year's big Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire, is interested in the film.
Condon had the Pryor biopic set up at The Weinstein Company but was able to pull it out when the indie outfit put it into turnaround.
Sounds like a terrible idea to me.
It's bad enough that so many biopics are just people doing impersonations of the subjects, this will basically be the ultimate because there's no way you could possibly separate Murphy and Pryor. Murphy's Pryor impersonation is so famous and he's already a well-known face in the history of stand-up.
because all of what you just said is the most important part of making a "biopic"
'Pryor' engagement for Condon
Director in talks with Columbia, Happy Madison
Source: Variety
Bill Condon is in discussions with Columbia Pictures and Happy Madison for a deal that would allow him to direct his Richard Pryor film -- with Marlon Wayans playing the legendary standup comedian -- next spring.
In the configuration being discussed, "Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said?" would be produced by Happy Madison's Adam Sandler and Jack Giarraputo, along with Chris Rock, Mark Gordon and Jennifer Pryor. The film would be made for under $20 million, with a spring production start eyed.
The studio would not comment on a pending deal, and sources cautioned that deals weren't done. Roles besides the lead haven't been cast, though sources said that Sandler has considered logging a cameo, possibly as Pryor's first manager, Sandy Gallin.
The project has nearly come together several times for Condon, who first set it up with his "Dreamgirls" star Eddie Murphy. It was developed at the Weinstein Co., but Harvey Weinstein let Condon shop it with the idea that he would put it into turnaround. Paramount and then Fox Searchlight considered it but ultimately decided the budget was too high because of the deal that Murphy was seeking.
Condon then began building the picture around Wayans, who most recently starred in "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra."