Eddie Murphy to play former Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry for HBO

The multidimensional life and times of Washington, D.C. ward eight councilman and former Mayor Marion Barry is set to be told in an HBO biopic, according to the Hollywood Reporter.


Actor Eddie Murphy would play Barry, filmmaker Spike Lee would direct and John Ridley would write the script, according to the Reporters.


Murphy, Lee and Ridley would serve as executive producers, according to the newspaper. In 2002, HBO was set to begin filming a script on Barry's life written by Chris Rock with actor Jamie Foxx in the lead role.


D.C. Journalists Harry Jaffe and Tom Sherwood, who in 1994 published the book Dream City, would serve as consultants on the unnamed film along with Dana Flor and Toby Oppenhiemer, producers of the 1994 documentary film The Nine Lives of Marion Barry.


The project, first reported by the Washington Post, is still in its early stages, but it's already attracted some big names. Spike Lee is set to direct the movie, and John Ridley ("Three Kings," the upcoming "Red Tails") will write the screenplay. Murphy, Lee and Ridley would all serve as executive producers.


There's certainly plenty of material for a biopic in Barry's life. A civil-rights activist and member of the D.C. school board in the early 1970s, Barry was elected mayor of Washington in 1979 and was in his third term in office when he was infamously arrested for use and possession of crack. He served six months in federal prison -- and two years after being released, won a fourth term as mayor. He currently serves on the D.C. City Council.


If the HBO movie goes forward, it would be Murphy's first major TV role since he left "Saturday Night Live" in the early 1980s. Lee and Ridley, meanwhile, are also working on another HBO project, a drama pilot called "Da Brick."