The Eddie Murphy revival continues with Monday's reveal of the trailer for Hustle & Flow director Craig Brewer's Dolemite Is My Name.
Brewer's biographical Netflix film stars Murphy as the late multi-hyphenate Rudy Ray Moore, whose 1975 blaxploitation classic Dolemite inspired a run of sequels and related continuations that spanned four decades.
The original Dolemite takes the focus in this Murphy-driven depiction, which also stars Wesley Snipes, Keegan-Michael Key, T.I., Chris Rock, Snoop Dogg, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and more from a script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. Following its global debut at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival next month, the latest chapter in Murphy's recently teased return to the full-blown spotlight will hit select theaters (as well as Netflix) later this fall.
Whilst traveling to coffee locales and old stand-up stomping grounds with Jerry Seinfeld for a Season 11 entry of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee last month, Murphy expressed palpable interest in unpausing his revered stand-up career. Shortly after associated clips from the episode started making the rounds, TMZ ran a report alleging that Netflix, fittingly, has been in negotiations with the once-prolific comedy icon in the name of multiple possible stand-up specials in exchange for as much as $70 million.
Murphy's most recent film performance was the 2016 drama Mr. Church. He's since been announced as on the precipice of a sequel to his 1988 John Landis-helmed hit with Arsenio Hall, Coming to America. While that sequel (notably directed by Brewer) has been confirmed to be in production ahead of a 2020 release date, the status of another long-teased extension of a Murphy canon entry—Beverly Hills Cop—isn't so definitive.
