Comedian Marlon Wayans is set to play legendary funnyman Richard Pryor in a new biopic.

A string of Hollywood heavyweights are lining up behind the project, which will be directed by Dreamgirls' Bill Condon and produced by Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Pryor's widow Jennifer.

Condon is currently in negotiations with Columbia Pictures and Sandler's Happy Madison company and hopes production on Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said? can begin next spring with a budget of $20 million, according to Daily Variety.

If the deal is done, it will conclude a long battle for Condon, whose plans to cast Eddie Murphy in the lead role collapsed when a number of studios rejected the star's pay demands.

Pryor died in 2005 from a cardiac arrest at the age of 65.