It’s been a fairly rough week for Eddie Murphy. With talk of a comeback boosted by favourable Tower Heist reviews and the promise of Hollywood’s hottest gig as host of the Oscars, the rug was swiftly pulled away thanks to Brett Ratner’s foot-in-mouth “rehearsals” moment.
Now, not only has Eddie stepped down from Oscar-hosting duties, but a new trailer has arrived to promote upcoming comedy A Thousand Words . And quite frankly, it’s an out and out stinker.
Murphy stars as Jack McCall, a literary agent whose stock in trade is the ability to close any deal with a torrent of silver-tongued yammering. However, an encounter with a New Age guru and a magic tree (yes, really) means Jack only has a thousand words left to say before he, er, dies.
Check out the trailer below. It might not be intentionally funny, but we found ourselves chuckling away regardless…
The coffee-ordering scene alone would seem to explain Eddie’s recent decision to turn his back on half-baked, family friendly comedies. In fairness to him, this one has been made for almost a year now, but the trailer couldn’t have arrived at a worse time.
A Thousand Words also stars Kerry Washington and Alison Janney, and arrives in UK cinemas on 6 April 2012. Let’s hope they’ve saved back the best jokes for the finished film. That’s usually how trailers work, right?