Kenya Barris To Helm Richard Pryor Biopic For MGM

Barris will also produce the movie through his Khalabo Ink Society, along with Pryor’s widow Jennifer Lee Pryor and her Tarnished Angel and Tory Metzger for Levantine Films. “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,” Barris said in a statement. “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,” he added.

Adam Rosenbergand Levantine’s Renee Wittwill serve executive producers on the project.