Wiatt, the chairman of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, is leaving the agency. Murphy has other potential projects floating around a third “Nutty Professor” is in development at Universal and he has a guaranteed hit next spring in DreamWorks’ “Shrek Forever After,” in which he reprises his vocal role as the sassy Donkey.īut the star also has difficult decisions to make about his career. Murphy does not do print interviews,” he said in an e-mail, adding, “For his age and body of work there are only one or two other actors that can compare to his career box office numbers.” Murphy’s publicist, said he would not trouble his client with an interview request from a newspaper. Web sites like Studio System () that track movie projects list a remake of “The Incredible Shrinking Man” as one of his next films, but Universal Pictures put that project on the back burner more than a year ago (around the time “Meet Dave” tanked).Īrnold Robinson, Mr. The studio’s plans for a fourth “Beverly Hills Cop” are also stalled. Paramount recently rejected a biopic about Richard Pryor that had Mr. Murphy isn’t paying a price for his track record. Murphy’s name is a marketing hook on a DVD, and he remains one of the few American comedians who can deliver results overseas.Įddie Murphy in Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, a hit. “His audiences are very straitjacketed in their expectations of him, and by that I mostly mean fat suit, fat suit, fat suit.” “The challenge with Eddie is that you have to put his brand on the right tin can,” said the consultant James Ulmer, who compiles the biannual report “The Ulmer Scale,” which rates the global bankability of actors. Murphy still asks for $20 million a picture and a cut of the gross they still want to be in business with them because they believe it lessens their risk. While studios are increasingly balking at paying top dollar for brand-name actors and Mr. Murphy, 48, is one of a declining number of actors whose name alone can get a movie made. Murphy has lost his movie mojo? “Absolute nonsense,” Mr. “He is explosive, given the right project, the right circumstances, the right concept, the right director,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chief executive of DreamWorks Animation and a friend. It cost about $60 million and featured him in a fat suit, sold $159 million worldwide in tickets and was a smash on DVD. People who prophesied that his career was over in 2002 with “The Adventures of Pluto Nash,” which cost about $100 million to make but only sold about $7 million worldwide in tickets, looked awfully foolish when “Norbit” arrived five years later.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |