Eddie Murphy Eyeing ‘Pink Panther’ Reboot

Eddie Murphy might be the new bumbling Inspector Clouseau. MGM is looking to revive The Pink Panther franchise, and the beloved comedian could be the face of the franchise moving forward. Jeff Fowler, who directed Sonic the Hedgehog, is still attached to the project as director.

Murphy’s Clouseau will be the first to share the screen with the popular animated Pink Panther character. The plot centers on the Pink Panther’s live-action team trying to break him out of an animated prison to help them with a heist job, reports The Hollywood Reporter. The project is still in the “deep development stages.”

Chris Bremner (Bad Boys For Life) wrote the script. Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich (Aladdin) will produce through their Rideback Banner. When news of the project first surfaced in November 2020, the late Walter Mirisch, who was the producer of the original Pink Panther movies, was set to executive produce with his son, Lawrence Mirish. Julie Andrews, whose late husband Blake Edwards directed the original Pink Panther movies, was a producer.

Murphy has headlined remakes before, having starred in the 1990s takes on The Nutty Professor and Doctor Dolittle. After taking a few years off from moviemaking in the 2010s, the Beverly Hills Cop star came roaring back in 2019 with Netflix’s Dolemite Is My Name. He also starred in Coming 2 America for Amazon’s Prime Video and Netflix’s You People. He recently finished work on the long-awaited fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley, which will be released on Netflix.

The Pink Panther franchise was one of the most popular movie series of the 1960s and 1970s. The original 1964 film introduced audiences to Peter Sellers’ Clouseau, who tracked down a notorious jewel thief, played by David Niven, who stole the “Pink Panther” diamond. Clouseau really became the main character of the franchise with the first sequel, A Shot in the Dark.

After the Alan Arkin-starring Inspector Clouseau flopped in 1968, Edwards and Sellers returned for The Return of the Pink Panther in 1975. The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978), Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), and Son of the Pink Panther (1993) followed. Steve Martin played Clouseau in the 2006 and 2009 Pink Panther movies.

All of the Pink Panther movies are famous for their animated main title sequences, which almost always featured the Pink Panther character. The character wasn’t in the movies themselves but still inspired a beloved series of animated shorts produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises between 1964 and 1980. The films also feature Henry Mancini’s iconic theme.