‘Dolemite Is My Name’ Trailer Released by Netflix

Netflix has just released the first trailer for the brand new Eddie Murphy film, Dolemite Is My Name. The biographical comedy tells the true story of Rudy Ray Moore, a comedian to had a major impact on blaxploitation culture with the Dolemite character he created. Moore was struggling with success in the 1970s, but when he thought up the idea of Dolemite he realized he had had a hit. It took some time to get the character off the ground, as initially people didn’t seem to “get” it. However, once Moore began putting together the Dolemite film, many others started to see how valuable his vision was.

In addition to Murphy, the film also stars Wesley Snipes, Tituss Burgess, Craig Robinson, Mike Epps, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Keegan-Michael Key, and Snoop Dogg.

Dolemite Is My Name is directed by Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan), and written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood, The People vs. Larry Flynt.)

Brewer recently opened up about the film during an interview with Entertainment Weekly, sharing with the outlet just what exactly drew him to the project.

“I come from the world of indie cinema, or do-it-yourself cinema, where my career got started just pulling together a ragtag crew of people who may or may not have known what we were doing, but we just had that passion to make movies. We would all get together and watch various independent films, and specifically classic blaxploitation movies, and Dolemite was that movie we’d always watch because of its glorious flaws,” he said with a laugh.

“But as much as Rudy Ray Moore comes off as this wonderfully strong character, his story is really an underdog story, and I’ve always been drawn to movies of people who don’t have much but do a hell of a lot with it, and that’s what got me really interested once I read the script that Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander sent to me,” Brewer added.

“At first I thought it was a Dolemite remake, and I was like, ‘I know that there’s probably a way you can make fun of it, but I don’t know if I feel comfortable doing it.’ But finally when I got past the first page, I was like, ‘Oh, this is about Rudy,’ and then it felt like it made sense to me,” he said.

Dolemite Is My Name will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, and will then make its Netflix debut sometime this fall.