…Eddie Murphy. Yes, Outposters. You read that right. In an announcement that came out of the blue, Murphy was out promoting The Pickup when he revealed his next role is Inspector Jacques Clouseau.
He was on the Today show when he dropped the news.
This is for a new iteration of the Pink Panther franchise at Amazon MGM Studios.
The role was most famously played by Peter Sellers in six movies from The Pink Panther (1963), where he was a secondary character to David Niven’s lead, through A Shot in the Dark (1964) where he became the main character, to Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978).
Steve Martin then played the role twice in a late 2000s reboot.
He also revealed that Shrek 5 will happen, and that he will be in a biopic of funk pioneer George Clinton. It was while talking about upcoming projects that he announced:
“And I’m going to be… I’m Inspector Clouseau in the next Pink Panther…”
When queried on his approach to playing a Frenchman, Murphy said:
“Maybe… well, he has to be French, but he could also be Haitian. I will tell you, he’s Black. He’s Black, for sure.”
There are no other details about the project at this time, but Amazon acquired the rights as part of their MGM acquisition.
