Eddie Murphy has been a stranger to screens for a few years, since the earnest Mr. Church failed to spark much in the way of devotion. But he's back in style, full of loudmouth energy and channelling the vibe of a real-life performer in the new biopic Dolemite Is My Name. Check out the first trailer...
Written by based-on-truth experts Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, Dolemite comes from Hustle & Flow director Craig Brewer, and is a film that Murphy has wanted to make for a while. It's the story of Rudy Ray Moore, a singer, actor and comedian. Stung by a string of showbiz failures, he has an epiphany that turns him into a word-of-mouth sensation: step onstage as someone else.
Borrowing from the street mythology of 1970s Los Angeles, Moore assumes the persona of Dolemite, a pimp with a cane and an arsenal of obscene fables. However, his ambitions exceed selling bootleg records deemed too racy for mainstream radio stations to play. Moore convinces a social justice-minded dramatist (Keegan-Michael Key) to write his alter ego a film, incorporating kung fu, car chases, and Lady Reed (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), an ex-backup singer who becomes his unexpected comedic foil.
Despite clashing with his pretentious director, D’Urville Martin (Wesley Snipes), and countless production hurdles at their studio in the dilapidated Dunbar Hotel, Moore’s Dolemite becomes a runaway box office smash and a defining movie of the Blaxploitation era. Moore has long since been hailed as an influence on multiple generations of comics, rappers and actors, and the film's cast gathers plenty of people from those worlds, including Snoop Dogg, Craig Robinson, Mike Epps and Tituss Burgess.
Netflix is planning to screen the film in select cinemas alongside its launch on the streaming service this autumn.