'Nutty Professor' Originally Set for Martin Lawrence
Hollywood -- July 11, 1996 -- Def Pictures head honcho Russell
Simmons reveals that Eddie Murphy's "The Nutty Professor" was initially
going to be a vehicle for comedian Martin Lawrence. Simmons, who
created HBO's Def Comedy Jam series, which Lawrence used to host, is
co-exec producer on "The Nutty Professor." He says "I'd been wanting to
make this movie for five years...It was going to be Def Comedy Jam Presents
'The Nutty Professor' and Martin Lawrence was talking about it with me and
we were getting all excited. Then I told (Imagine Entertainment head) Brian
Grazer the idea and the next day he called me and said Do you want me to
get the rights and we do it together?'" Simmons says, "Once Brian got involved
things just steamrolled. The next thing I know it was Eddie in the lead. And of
course, the chance to work with Eddie Murphy was a big deal for me. I've
known him for many years, but never got a chance to work with him. It all
just sort of came together." Simmons upcoming Def Pictures slate is full. He
has "The Funeral" with Christopher Walken, Isabella Rossellini and Annabella
Sciorra upcoming for release in October; "Gridlock" with Tupac Shakur and
Tim Roth is just about to wrap shooting; and in August he starts filming "How
to Be A Player" with former MTV host Bill Bellamy in the lead role. "It's a
comedy about a guy who just cannot stay monogamous... kind of like a Ferris
Bueller's Day Off,'" says Simmons.
'Hoodlums' Hoods Not Glamorized Says Director Duke
Hollywood -- July 12, 1996 -- Do not expect romanticized movie
gangsters when the Laurence Fishburne-starrer "Hoodlums" opens at a
theater near you. The feature is in production now, in Chicago, with
director/actor Bill Duke at the helm. Speaking of himself and Fishburne,
who are coproducing the picture, Duke tells this column, "One of the things
we're insisting on is that it does not romanticize these guys, and does not
romanticize killing. If someone is gunned down, we're going to show it in
relatively graphic terms. We will show these gangsters' brutality." The
gangsters involved: "Bumpy" Johnson (Fishburne), Dutch Schultz (Tim
Roth), Lucky Luciano (Andy Garcia), etc., in the saga that focuses on
Johnson. "He was a folk hero in Harlem -- still is, in fact. He has been
referred to as The Robin Hood of Harlem," says Duke. "He realized that
without keeping money in the black community, the depression would
affect the community even worse than it did. So he went up against
Schultz" -- and the two fought for control of the numbers racket in
Harlem. "He gave money to churches, and when families were kicked
out on the street, he'd help them out and pay their rent. Yet he was also
a monster." Duke also finds Schultz a fascinating character. When other
white mobsters "ignored Harlem, feeling there was nothing to be made
from Nigger pennies,' he went in and took advantage, and it was only
later that Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano realized they had been
missing a vital area...We didn't want to do a typical mobster casting,
we didn't want to be right on the nose with these men. For Schultz,
we wanted an actor who could deal with the contradictions in the
man -- an old style mobster, one of the few Jewish mobsters, and
very proud of the fact he was a Jew."
Copyright (c) 1996 Beck/Smith Ent.