Pink Panther (Live-Action)

[Daniel]

Eddie Murphy is in talks to star.

The Pink Panther films told the adventures of bumbling Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers), with the first film involving a jewel called the Pink Panther. A cartoon panther appeared in the opening credits, and became popular in his own right, starring in cartoons over the decades.

According to sources, the new feature project would be a live-action/CG hybrid and would combine both traditions. The premise takes a buddy cop movie tone to the proceedings with the Inspector and Panther teaming up for the first time ever on the big-screen. Insiders also classified the project as still in the deep development stages.

Oh... kay. Could work.

[Ben]

Sellers can’t be touched, but this sounds like a totally new departure from what we’ve seen before. As long as Pink doesn’t talk, I’m well in for this!

[Daniel]

And doesn't look as bad as that initial Sonic design!

[Ben]

Wait…there’s a pic!?

[Daniel]

No sorry, I was continuing from your post.

[Ben]

Right, gotcha.

[EricJ]

According to sources, the new feature project would be a live-action/CG hybrid and would combine both traditions. The premise takes a buddy cop movie tone to the proceedings with the Inspector and Panther teaming up for the first time ever on the big-screen. Insiders also classified the project as still in the deep development stages.

Sounds like the project just changed hands to a production company that had never seen the films in their lives, ie., that the Panther was a diamond.
(Used to be Sony, who owned the 007's and Steve Martin Panthers after UA went under, but looks like Mirisch went back to being an orphan again.)

And wouldn't raise hopes about Pink not talking, as every other article just reported Eddie Murphy signed for the deal, but, nonsensically, playing Clouseau. That may be a mistake, as the other alternative, unfortunately, sounds more plausible.

[Randall]

My initial thought was, "No. Just no."

But the summary has piqued my curiosity.

[Ben]

Sounds like the project just changed hands to a production company that had never seen the films in their lives…

No, this is just Amazon saying, "right, how do we make more money out of our old MGM library acquisition?". Of course, they were UA films, but that doesn’t matter thesedays…

Yes, the Panther *was* a diamond, but he was also a cartoon right from the start. Dreyfus even interacted with him in the closing titles of one of the later ones. And Son (yes, yes, we know) had that Roger Rabbit influenced opening. So there’s precedence for this being a character in that world, be it just for our own enjoyment or a figment of other characters' imagination.

Personally, I like the concept, as it’s a new take. And you have to have a Clouseau, and in these times he has to be different — at least they didn’t go "Sellers granddaughter" or something — and Eddie’s still a natural performer, give or take Coming 2 America (please, please take it). At least this will be, or should be, a strong character part for him to have fun with, get into, and be a bit different with.

Haha…the two guys on the (awesome) Bowfinger poster will have both played Clouseau!

[EricJ]

Yes, but Steve Martin can PLAY a self-delusional doofus (qv. Bowfinger), and Murphy tends to be the fast-talking hustler.
That, and the usual studio worship of Other People's Shrek does rather suggest the talking-Pink theory.

Before Martin, there were rumors of Chris Rock in "Birth of the Pink Panther", so, they may also be going with recycled memos, for lack of new ideas. We shall see.

(And what do you "know" about Son? That it was a better post-Sellers movie because Benigni basically directed his own scenes after Blake Edwards forgot how?)

[Ben]

Except that in Bowfinger, Murphy’s character (at least the main one) was the doofus. And I can’t see them having two wisecracking characters facing off each other, that would be exhausting. Hopefully they’ll remember the last time they let Pink talk, and keep things relatively traditional…

And…no…Son is pretty terrible, mainly for not having a leading actor who’s doing a character — Benigni is basically just being himself. It does, however, have one absolutely hilarious visual gag, involving the lovely Herbert Lom and a swimming pool, which may actually be the single most funniest shot in the entire original series of films.

[gaastra]

They have been trying to make a roger rabbit like pink panther film for decades now. They even had a prime time show planned in the 90s with panther a cop. (not inspector as his partner but a new cop) Trouble was it was the talking max headroom voiced panther that was going to be used in it.

The budget however would have been too high priced, and the show was not picked up and made by the station.

[EricJ]

That was around the time Sony, who had custody of UA's 007 and Panther, was desperate to find a House Brand icon to market, just like Warner's Batman or Disney's princesses, and all they had to market to women were either the Screen Gems Bewitched/Jeannie (which is how we got the crap movie), or marketing Pink, because, well...pink. (Which is how we got the crap Steve Martin movie.)
I suspect the same is true today, and even more so, now that 10's Hollywood had become the IP Game of Thrones.

And besides, we already know the Panther sounds like David Niven (of course!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdcugKs_9D8
And as you can see, a Panther who needs to say anything is no Panther.

[Ben]

*Like* Niven, maybe. But not really. There was also another voice in the shorts, before he spoke again in the 90s.

(Sony never owned any rights. They had a distribution deal with MGM.)

[EricJ]

Well, the Panther's nagging inner-monologue conscience DID sound a bit like Terry-Thomas (by way of Larry Storch), if that's what you mean, but didn't think it counted.