Eddie Murphy is Not The Riddler ... But He Wants to Be Egghead
Filed under: Action, Casting, RumorMonger, Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
Back in December when new Batman rumors were swirling faster than the wind between buildings in Gotham City, the Brits from across the pond were having a blast chucking out one false casting rumor after the next. The truth at the time (and it still is to a degree) was that Christopher Nolan hadn't even started work on a script for the next Batman movie, and casting the thing was still a ways out.
One rumor that popped up had to do with Eddie Murphy becoming The Riddler in the new film. We all knew it was bullsh*t at the time, but it was finally confirmed by the man himself, Eddie Murphy, during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien last night. The clip isn't online yet (I'm sure it'll hit Hulu in the next day or so), but Conan actually brought up the Riddler rumor to Eddie and the actor laughed it off as such after acknowledging that he heard it too and thought it was hilarious. After that, though, he did say that he'd actually like to star in (and I'm paraphrasing) "one of those Batman type films," which means we could see Murphy donning a tight superhero suit one day soon. Will he be The Riddler? Probably not. But I wouldn't be surprised if Eddie gets in on this superhero craze in some way, shape or form in the near future.
Update: Thanks to commenter John for reminding me that Murphy said he'd love to play Egghead instead of Riddler, and proceeded to do the Egghead voice as Vincent Price. Funny stuff.
Update 2: Video of this interview is now available at NBC's site. And I'm not reminded that they also discussed James Brown, and Eddie said he'd love to see Wesley Snipes take on the role.
And don't forget to vote for your favorite all-time Eddie Murphy character over at Moviefone.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-10-2009 @ 11:28AM
Mike said...
His appearance on the Tonight Show shows that he can still be funny. It's a shame he picks such crappy projects.
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6-10-2009 @ 11:31AM
John said...
He said that he'd rather be Egghead (previously played by Vincent price in the TV show). Murphy proceeded to crack up O'brien and the audience by reeling off a series of bad Egghead puns from the show using Price's voice.
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7-28-2009 @ 10:47AM
DC said...
Eddie is Very funny. That was solid Eddie Murphy. I'm not sure of why the American media and Hollywood elite want to constantly discredit his work. Perhaps if he were younger or came form another family or female or didn't play straight so much and turned out as much quality cinema, he'd be more honored for the range and duration of his comedic genius. I also applaud his efforts to make clean family movies that really are for families. I guess, part of it are his sensabilities with regard to character and objectives are keener then most actors who struggle with a single roll while Murphy meticulously fleshes out and acreen near entire casts successfully.
Yes, he can get down dirty and sexy with the best of them, but he apparently knows the difference. Rare in the Disney, Viacom, etc. age.
Good comics like Adam Sandler, Jim Carrey, Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Billy Crystal are more or less a bucket of water in Eddie's ocean. Murphy is one of the last in the comedic dynasty left by Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Redd Foxx and Bill Cosby (there are a few others, but you get the point).
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