USA: EDDIE MURPHY CELEBRATES FILM PREMIERE OF 'NUTTY PROFESSOR II' IN LOS ANGELES

Record ID: 546391

  • Title: USA: EDDIE MURPHY CELEBRATES FILM PREMIERE OF 'NUTTY PROFESSOR II' IN LOS ANGELES
  • Date: 24th July 2000
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JULY 24) (REUTERS) ***CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** CA TV CAMERAS SV EDDIE MURPHY POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS CU EDDIE MURPHY SPEAKING WITH THE MEDIA SV (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) EDDIE MURPHY SAYING Well, the characters in the first movie, that was what jumped off, you know? Those dinner scenes, that's what everybody remembers, those characters. So, to get them up from the table and having them interacting with each other and have them be a part of the story, that was a challenge and that's what's fun to watch, you know? SV JANET JACKSON ARRIVING/ SPEAKING TO MEDIA SV JACKSON SPEAKING TO MEDIA SV (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) JANET JACKSON SAYING OF WHY SHE DIDN'T ACT SINCE "POETIC JUSTICE," Actually I got in a great deal of scripts, and either they were too similar to the character or that film, and I wanted to do something completely different or the scripts that I did absolutely love, there was a scheduling conflict, being on tour, making an album, having to do videos, so when this came about, I was actually working on the album, so I just pushed everything aside cause I didn't want to let this opportunity pass me by.
  • Embargoed: 8th August 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, US AND FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA822RHNI22JSE1V8MB5UMHLS25
  • Story Text: Eddie Murphy once again tackles multiple roles while sweating under tons of makeup and prosthetics in "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps," which has celebrated its World Premiere in Los Angeles.
    After the immense blockbuster success of the first "Nutty Professor" in 1996, the film's producers immediately started work on a sequel and decided to base the new story around the portly Klump family, FIVE members of which are played by Eddie Murphy.
    In the first film, two dinner table scenes featuring Murphy as five different members of the family were the most popular in the movie. For the sequel, Murphy takes each of these characters into worlds of their own, away from the Klump dining room.
    At the center of the sequel is Murphy playing Professor Sherman Klump, a brilliant college scientist who has finally found love and is getting married to his beautiful colleague Denise Gaines, played by Janet Jackson.
    This is Jackson's first big screen acting role since her work in John Singleton's 1993 drama "Poetic Justice."
    But their happiness is threatened when Klump's slick, obnoxious and loud-mouthed alter-ego Buddy Love returns in search of Klump's most recent invention, a revolutionary youth serum.
    Once again, Murphy plays Love, the only character in the film for which he didn't have to undergo hours of makeup applications.
    Love's search for the serum brings him to the Klump family home, where he encounters his parents, younger brother and lascivious septuagenarian grandmother, all played by Murphy.
    Playing six different characters for an entire film required Murphy to undergo three to five hours of extensive make-up each day.
    This meant he could only play one character each day, causing a scene involving all five members of the Klump family to take five days to shoot.
    Designed by five-time Oscar-winning special make-up effects wizard Rick Baker, the daily applications involved foam rubber latex pieces, special wigs and light-weight foam and spandex body suits.
    This is the forth time Baker has worked with Murphy.
    They previously collaborated on "Coming to America," "The Nutty Professor" and "Life."
    As directed by Peter Segal, the film also makes extended use of special effects in order to allow Murphy to perform opposite many different versions of himself at the same time.
    Murphy would spend one full day as a particular Klump, then the next day, he would play another family member in the same scene, touching or speaking with the character he played the day before.
    It was then up to visual effects supervisor Jon Farhat to marry the characters together seemlessly in the same frame of film.
    As in the original film, "The Klumps" is produced by Imagine Entertainment, which is the company belonging to producing partners Ron Howard and Brian Grazer.
    Based on the huge popularity of the Klump family in the original film, Universal Pictures is predicting big box office returns when "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps" opens in theaters throughout the United States on Friday, July 28.
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