It used to be that stories and memes about Coming to America 2 were fake news, probably planted by anarchistic Russians looking to sew discord among the movie community. However, in April we learned that, after thirty years, a sequel to the Eddie Murphy comedy was really happening. Now it has a director in Jonathan Levine and a new writer aboard in Black-ish creator Kenya Barris.
Levine, who most recently directed Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer in Snatched, will direct the Coming to America sequel, with Barris rewriting the script. The original 1988 movie starred Murphy as an African prince who flees an arranged marriage to find real love in New York City. The film was a huge hit with $288M, and introduced us to "Sexual Chocolate", perhaps the greatest fictional R&B band ever. Oh, and Arsenio Hall co-starred back when having Arsenio Hall in your movie was a huge deal.
Despite all of this movement I'll believe this when I'm in my seat watching the opening credits. Murphy's been attached to more projects that have gone nowhere than have actually made it to screens. He gave us the dramatic flop Mr. Church, but there's been little on Beverly Hills Cop 4, Twins sequel Triplets, or Lee Daniels' Richard Pryor biopic. [THR]
