Eddie Murphy may play the Bill Cosby role in a theatrical version of the 1960s TV series I Spy, the Hollywood Reporter reported today (Thursday).

The film, to be produced by Sony's Columbia Pictures, is likely to be directed by Betty Thomas, who previously teamed with Murphy on Dr. Doolittle, the trade paper said. Lending some irony to the report is the fact that Murphy has frequently spoofed Cosby and that Cosby, in turn, has been critical of some of Murphy's gross-out professional antics.

Although some critics have written that Cosby's character on I Spy played little more than a lackey to Robert Culp's character, many TV historians have noted that it marked a historical first for television: the first leading role for a black actor on a dramatic television series.

Source: Studio Briefing