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Eddie Murphy will play George Clinton in upcoming biopic

Sat 2 November 2024 9:52, UK

Beverly Hills Cop legend Eddie Murphy is set to continue his resurgence on the big screen in an upcoming biopic of Parliament-Funkadelic pioneer George Clinton. It will be directed by Bill Condon, who brought 2006’s adaptation of Dreamgirls to cinemas, in which Murphy played James ‘Thunder’ Early.

Clearly, Murphy has form in musical biopics, and the news that he is teaming up with the Condon once more can only bode well for the Clinton feature. This, when taken in tandem with Murphy’s broad array of dramatic exploits and the fact the Funkadelic legend has lived a wild life, means that on paper, the film is shaping up to be an intriguing prospect.

The news that Condon and Murphy are working on a Clinton biopic for Amazon MGM Studios was broken by Deadline. They write that the script is penned by Virgil Williams, who wrote the screenplays for The Piano Lesson and Mudbound, and is adapted from an original draft by Max Werner. The project was kicked off by Catherine Davis, a big fan of Clinton, who pitched the idea to Murphy.

Murphy will also produce the film through his company, Eddie Murphy Productions, and John Davis through Davis Entertainment, Catherine Davis, and Greg Yolen. Eddie Murphy Productions’ Charisse Hewitt-Webster is executive producing, alongside Archie Ivy, Jeff Jampol, and Clinton himself. The presence of the latter is significant.

The movie, which does not have a name yet, is based on Clinton’s reveal-all memoir, Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard On You? It will tell the untold story of his life, leading from his origins in New Jersey with his doo-wop band all the way to the madcap times as a pioneer of funk music with the seminal collective Parliament-Funkadelic. Notably, the group had a defining impact on the popular aesthetic of Afrofuturism, with their science-fiction themes and shiny costumes reimagining the African-American experience for the future.

Explaining the motivation behind his widely influential 1975 album Mothership Connection, Clinton once said: “Clinton said “We had put black people in situations nobody ever thought they would be in, like the White House. I figured another place you wouldn’t think black people would be was in outer space. I was a big fan of Star Trek, so we did a thing with a pimp sitting in a spaceship shaped like a Cadillac, and we did all these James Brown-type grooves, but with street talk and ghetto slang.”

Clinton has many fans throughout the mediums, with Prince once claiming that Parliament-Funkadelic “changed the world.” He also has prominent fans in the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who paid tribute to him in ‘Dani California,’ and g-funk stars such as Snoop Dogg.

Murphy’s next film comes in the form of Amazon MGM’s heist film The Pickup. It also stars Keke Palmer and Pete Davidson.