Half-Assed Internet Research
Wendy's location for McDowell's; Murphy and Landis pay; Landis-Murphy feud; Twilight Zone accident; Armond White review; Buchwald lawsuit; CBS pilot; Zamunda origin; Return of the Jedi homage
In the discussion (14)
Approx. transcript time · 01:22:57Read transcript
- McDowell's was a Wendy's on Queens Boulevard that was about to close.
- Murphy got $8 million plus 15% of film rentals, with weekly spending on a motorhome, trainer, valet and living allowance; Landis got $600,000 and 10% of gross.
- Landis and Murphy feuded: Landis called the Coming to America-era star arrogant with an entourage, yet wonderful in the movie; Eddie's response was that Landis treated him like a kid and that he hired Landis when his career hung by a thread.
- Murphy's appraisal of Landis's career is judged correct; a shot swooping into the dancing scene prompted a lookup of who directed it.
- The Twilight Zone accident: a helicopter crash killed Vic Morrow and child actors, Landis was blamed and tried, and it reshaped rules for child actors.
- Landis later directed Beverly Hills Cop 3, and Murphy crushed him in a 1999 Playboy interview.
- Armond White called the movie a betrayal full of ethnic self-loathing; Murphy responded with a paid advertisement in the paper.
- Armond White went down with the ship when Eddie was in the toilet; he meant that review, but he also liked Pluto Nash and killed Moonlight.
- Agreeing, the reply adds that White then found value in the worst Eddie Murphy movies, perhaps after the ad, and is a real crapshoot. — Wesley Morris
- Art Buchwald's 1982 treatment about a rich visitor to America was optioned by Paramount with Landis and Murphy attached, abandoned in 1985, then remade; Buchwald won the breach-of-contract case and was paid off on appeal with undisclosed terms.
- A round-number guess for the Buchwald payout is about $5 million. — Bill Simmons
- A CBS sitcom pilot with Tommy Davidson as the prince was not picked up.
- Zamunda came from a Richard Pryor routine.
- The king's line "I shall deal with him myself" is identified as a Return of the Jedi homage. — Van Lathan