Coming to America is a Paramount romantic comedy film franchise created and written by Eddie Murphy for the Paramount Pictures family.
Legacy[]
Origin[]
- Main article: Coming to America (film)
The series' origin is mostly taken from the film itself. The film was released in the United States on June 29, 1988. Eddie Murphy plays Akeem Joffer, the crown prince of the fictional African nation of Zamunda, who travels to the United States in the hopes of finding a woman he can marry and love for who she is, not for her status or for having been trained to please him.
Television pilot[]
:Main article: Coming to America (1989)
A television pilot of a weekly sitcom version of the film was produced for CBS, following the film's success, starring Tommy Davidson as Prince Tariq, and Paul Bates reprising his role as Oha. The pilot went unsold, but was televised on July 4, 1989, as part of the CBS Summer Playhouse pilot anthology series.
Remakes[]
A Tamil film, My Dear Marthandan, was produced based on the plot of Coming to America. A Hong Kong film, The Fun, the Luck & the Tycoon, also has the same plot.
Influences in music[]
The melody heard in the bathroom scene, where Prince Akeem is being washed by female servants, was sampled in Snoop Dogg's 2006 song "That's That" featuring R. Kelly; a remix of the song featuring American rapper Nas includes a woman's voice saying "the royal penis is clean, Your Highness", a line taken from the same scene.
Cultural impact[]
The movie has been described as having a "cult following" years after its release, despite negative press, with one of the highest-grossing box office of the year it was released, as well as one of the highest-grossing films featuring African-Americans.
Ironically, the World Wrestling Federation would transform white wrestler George Gray's One Man Gang character into an Africa-based wrestler also called Akeem a few months after Coming to America's release
Sequel[]
- Main article: Coming 2 America
In early 2017, an announcement was publicized which addressed the impending production of a sequel to the film. Kevin Misher was named as producer, and Sheffield and Blaustein, the original screenwriters, were also attached to the project. However, a possible participation of lead actors Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall was left undefined.
On January 11, 2019, it was announced that the sequel will be moving forward with Murphy reprising his role and Craig Brewer as director (having previously worked with Murphy on the Netflix film Dolemite Is My Name). Arsenio Hall, Shari Headley, John Amos, Paul Bates and James Earl Jones are expected to return for the sequel as well. Wesley Snipes signed on for a role in the film. It was reported that Leslie Jones and American rapper Rick Ross were joining the cast in an undisclosed roles.
The film was scheduled to be theatrically released on December 18, 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon Studios bought the distribution rights and released it digitally on Amazon Prime Video on March 4, 2021.
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