November 7, 2024

Eddie Murphy to star opposite Jonah Hill in Kenya Barris-directed comedy



It looks like Kenya Barris is teaming up with Netflix again to direct a new comedy, and he’s been able to enlist Hollywood heavyweights Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill to star in the yet to be titled project.

Earlier this year Amazon released Murphy’s Coming 2 America, a comedy sequel to the comedian’s 1988 classic. The film was written by Barris and given what a mega success it was for that streaming service, it should come as no surprise that Netflix would want to reunite the dynamic duo.

“Plot details are being kept secret, but it is said to be an incisive examination of modern love and family dynamics and how clashing cultures, societal expectations and generational differences shape and affect relationships. Murphy and Hill will find themselves on opposite sides of some of those divides,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Murphy has already gotten a big win under his belt with Netflix thanks to the 2019’s biopic, Dolemite is My Name, which received critical acclaim and awards nods for the streaming service. What makes this upcoming project even more special is the fact that this will mark Barris’ feature directorial debut.

Murphy, who undeniably dominated the box office in the 1980s and 1990s, has clearly not lost his ability to draw audiences in big numbers. And as theGrio previously reported back in the spring, right around his April 3rd birthday, the prolific actor shared that he was “the most comfortable” he’s ever been in his own skin.

“I feel great and optimistic and totally comfortable in Eddie. I always was comfortable in my skin, but not like now,” the Hollywood icon told Oprah Winfrey in Apple TV+’s The Oprah Conversation.

Winfrey also opened up about hitting the 60 year milestone and the advice she received from late poet Maya Angelou

“When I turned 60, I realized I was more secure in being myself than I’ve ever been,”  the now 67-year-old media mogul said. “Maya Angelou had said to me that your fifties is all that you’ve been meaning to be, I feel that I fulfilled that. Turning 60 was a level of security that’s really pretty solid.,” she continued.

“I mean, you are definitely in the period of your life where you have either accomplished, or haven’t accomplished, and you can be satisfied or not satisfied,” Winfrey added. 

Prior to that interview Murphy spoke about his birthday when he gushed about being the father of 10 kids. The comedian also admitted he is done putting his career above his family. 

“I am going to be 60 in April and I have all these babies. I love fatherhood,” Murphy said on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast last month. 

“The whole idea of being out there and doing three movies a year, that s*** is over … I found over and over again and along the way I realized that if you put your children first you never make a bad decision,” he added. The proud papa also noted that he does not have “one bad seed” when it comes to his offspring.

“My kids are so great, normal people, and nobody is like the Hollywood jerk kid,” Murphycontinued. “My kids are smart and are trying to do stuff. I am blessed with my kids. I really, really got lucky.”

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