Marlon Wayans to play Richard Pryor

Scared his career might actually recover, Eddie Murphy drops out of the Richard Pryor biopic, leaving the role to the second unfunniest black man in America, Marlon Wayans. Martin Lawrence was next in line.

Murphy was all set to play the controversial comedian in Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said, working under his Dreamgirls director Bill Condon. Inexplicably - we're guessing it was a debate about money - Eddie told producers to "get the fuck out of here, heeh heeh heeh" and jumped ship.

Marlon Wayans is reportedly now the front-runner to play Pryor, and is in advanced talks with - erk - Adam Sandler's production company. This thing has 'win' written all over it.

Wayans reportedly "blew producers away" (glad they added 'away') with a 13 minute screen test in which "he transforms into Pryor". Hmm, sounds like he could have played one of the Minstrelbots in Revenge Of The Fallen.

Wayans' comedies are generally awful - though that applies to the entire family - but when given a chance to show some dramatic chops, he's actually not bad. See Requiem For A Dream for proof - it's genuinely quite a striking performance and shows he's not just a one-note, one-joke stereotype.

The only question is whether or not Wayans can fit the Pryor biopic into his shooting schedule between White Chicks 2 and Scary Movie 5. The most depressing sentence ever written, ladies and gentlemen.