EXCLUSIVE: Eddie Murphy is in early talks to play Parliament Funkadelic leader George Clinton. Murphy will also serve as producer with John Davis and Catherine Davis through their Davis Entertainment banner. They are tying down rights with the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner, and they will then set writers and shop the project. Murphy has a three-picture deal with Amazon that came after the success of Coming 2 America. This is a passion project for Murphy.
Clinton is widely considered to be the Godfather of Funk music, who rivals James Brown and Sly Stone as the foremost innovators in that musical genre. The film will tell the story of the iconic musician’s humble beginnings in North Carolina in the 1940’s, to the formation of his groundbreaking band George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic, and ultimately to becoming a musical influence on artists of the hip-hop generation including Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Outkast and Wu-Tang Clan, among many others.
Murphy teamed with Davis on the Netflix film Dolemite is My Name, which got him a lot of accolades playing the unlikely Blaxploitation film star Rudy Ray Moore. He then followed with the sequel to his 1988 comedy classic Coming 2 America. Murphy next begins production on the Kenya Barris-directed Netflix comedy You People, in which he co-stars with Jonah Hill. That will be followed with Beverly Hills Cop 4 this summer, as he reprises his Alex Foley role. Murphy separately was Emmy nominated for his long awaited return to Saturday Night Live, the show that launched him.
Clinton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, alongside 15 other members of Parliament Funkadelic. In 2019, he and those members were given their Grammy Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Murphy is repped by WME and Skip Brittenham.
