The Humor Mill May 2022 | Page 16

Eddie Murphy
There are insider reports that comedian and actor Eddie Murphy is in early talks to play Parliament- Funkadelic leader George Clinton in an upcoming biopic . Word is Murphy also will serve as producer with Davis Entertainment ’ s John Davis , Catherine Davis , and John Fox . They are tying down rights with the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner , and then they will set writers and shop the project . Murphy has a three-picture deal with Amazon that came after the success of Coming 2 America , and this is a passion project for him . Clinton is widely considered to be the Godfather of Funk , rivaling 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 1940s to the formation of his groundbreaking bands Parliament and Funkadelic and ultimately to becoming a major 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 . 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 .

HUMOR MILL

Actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw is set to star as the lead opposite Kevin Hart in the new Netflix action thriller Lift . Rounding out the cast are Vincent D ’ Onofrio , Billy Magnussen , Úrsula Corberó , Yun Jee Kim , Viveik Kalra and Paul Anderson . F . Gary Gray will direct the pic , with Dan Kunka penning the script . Hart will play a master thief who is wooed by his ex-girlfriend and the FBI to pull off an impossible heist with his international crew on a 777 flying from London to Zurich . Lift falls under Hart and HartBeat Productions ’ creative partnership with Netflix . They are in production on comedy Me Time , starring Mark Wahlberg and Regina Hall .