Mike Epps Confirmed as Richard Pryor in Lee Daniels' Film; Oprah Winfrey Joins Cast

Years in the making with names like Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Michael B. Jordan, Marlon Wayans, and most recently Nick Cannon (negatory, dude) circling the lead role, a biopic on legendary comedian Richard Pryor has met a lot of hurdles. Primarily finding someone to play the funnyman, and meet the approval of the Pryor estate, proved to be an issue. When Lee Daniels came aboard to direct the film those roadblocks seemed to come down, and recently Mike Epps was the guy seen as frontrunner to star. And now it appears his screen tests were impressive enough to lock up the deal once and for all.

Both Epps and Daniels took to Twitter to reveal the news of Epps' casting, with the director tweeting this photo that includes his Oprah Winfrey, cast as Pryor's abusive grandmothe....

Get ready y'all- #MikeEpps as #RichardPryor pic.twitter.com/0sothu7yVB
— lee daniels (@leedanielsent) August 24, 2014

Meanwile, Epps tweeted this photo of what he had to do land the role of Pryor, namely kissing the hand of his widow, Jennifer....

Had to kiss the ring of @jennferLpryor for the blessing !you got to be stong to have been with the king! pic.twitter.com/OxvbjvPqHc
— Mike Epps (@TheRealMikeEpps) August 24, 2014

Epps played Pryor in the Nina Simone biopic starring Zoe Saldana, and lately has been taking on more dramatic roles in films like Sparkle and Jumping the Broom. This would be the biggest part of his career, though, and could do for him what Ray did for Jamie Foxx.