Eddie Murphy mounts a comeback in ‘Dolemite Is My Name’ trailer

In his what is the beginning of a major Hollywood comeback, Academy Award nominee Eddie Murphy portrays real-life legend Rudy Ray Moore, a comedy and rap pioneer who proved naysayers wrong when his hilarious, obscene, kung-fu fighting alter ego, Dolemite, became a 1970s Blaxploitation phenomenon in the Netflix film Dolemite Is My Name from Hustle & Flow director Craig Brewer.

Stung by a string of showbiz failures, floundering comedian Rudy Ray Moore 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.

In his what is the beginning of a major Hollywood comeback, Academy Award nominee Eddie Murphy portrays real-life legend Rudy Ray Moore, a comedy and rap pioneer who proved naysayers wrong when his hilarious, obscene, kung-fu fighting alter ego, Dolemite, became a 1970s blaxploitation phenomenon in the Netflix film Dolemite Is My Name from Hustle & Flow director Craig Brewer.

The film is directed by Craig Brewer from a screenplay by Academy Award nominees Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski and co-stars Wesley Snipes, Keegan-Michael Key, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chris Rock, Craig Robinson, Tituss Burgess and Mike Epps. It is produced by John Davis, John Fox and Eddie Murphy and executive produced by Michael Beugg and Charisse M. Hewitt.

Dolemite Is My Name will have its world premiere at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival next month and hit US theaters and Netflix this fall. Here is the first trailer.