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Eddie Murphy is back on screens with Dolemite is My Name, his biopic movie about comedian Rudy Ray Moore that was in development hell for over a decade until Netflix decided to release it. Murphy leads the cast, which also includes Keegan Michael Key, Titus Burgess and Wesley Snipes also star in the movie, which has a plot that sees Moore come up with a character that allowed him to find fame in a number of unique blaxploitation films.
When is Dolemite is My Name out on Netflix?
After a brief theatrical run, Dolemite Is My Name comes to Netflix on Friday, October 25 at one minute past midnight PT. When it is released in your country or territory will depend on your time difference from the west coast of the U.S.A.
Who is in the cast of Dolemite is My Name?
Eddie Murphy leads the cast of the movie as Rudy Ray Moore, a real-life comedian whose life story the actor has been trying to get to screens for 16 years.
As the Moore in the movie tries to get his film Dolemite made, he starts recruiting an array of black talent, including screenwriter Jerry Jones (Keegan Michael-Key), actors Lady Reed (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) and Jimmy Lynch (Mike Epps) and film producer Theordore Toney (Titus Burgess).
Epps told LA Times of his role, "It resonated with me because being a stand-up comic, it ain't easy breaking into the stand-up world. But he was a perfect example of sometimes being oblivious to the rules," while Burgess said of the real-life Moore: "We always knew what was happening because we would be sent outside or away...When they would go to bed we would sneak and get the VHSes and pop them in and watch them. ... It wasn't until I was an adult and revisited it that I got the full majesty of what it is."
Also starring alongside this cast are stars like Chris Rock, Snoop Dogg and T.I.
What will happen in Dolemite is My Name?
The official Netflix synopsis for the film reads: "Stung by a string of showbiz failures, floundering comedian Rudy Ray Moore (Academy Award nominee Eddie Murphy) has an epiphany that turns him into a word-of-mouth sensation: step onstage as someone else. Borrowing from the street mythology of 1970s Los Angeles, Moore assumes the persona of Dolemite, a pimp with a cane and an arsenal of obscene fables.
"However, his ambitions exceed selling bootleg records deemed too racy for mainstream radio stations to play. Moore convinces a social justice-minded dramatist (Keegan-Michael Key) to write his alter ego a film, incorporating kung fu, car chases, and Lady Reed (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), an ex-backup singer who becomes his unexpected comedic foil. Despite clashing with his pretentious director, D'Urville Martin (Wesley Snipes), and countless production hurdles at their studio in the dilapidated Dunbar Hotel, Moore's Dolemite becomes a runaway box office smash and a defining movie of the Blaxploitation era."
Speaking to Deadline, Murphy said of the idea behind the movie: "When I got older and I found out that he had financed his movies, and financed his records, and put his stuff together, and he was like an entrepreneur and guerrilla filmmaker, that's the part of his stuff that was really interesting, and I thought that would make a great movie."
Is there a trailer for Dolemite is My Name?
In August, Netflix released the first trailer for the movie, which sees Moore dream up the character of Dolemite for the first time and then dream of putting him into films after going to see a screening of 1974 film The Front Page and hearing Jimmy and friend Ben Taylor (Craig Robinson) say, "this ain't funny...and there ain't no brothers in it either."
The promo also gives viewers their first glimpse of the movie's loving recreations of scenes from Morroe's first film and touches on the impact it had on black cinema-goers after it was released in 1975.
Dolemite is My Name is released on October 25 on Netflix.
