Eddie Murphy to voice “Hong Kong Phooey” in movie

Hong Kong Phooey

Eddie Mur­phy will voice the ani­mated lead char­ac­ter in Alcon Entertainment’s live-action/animated big-screen Hong Kong Phooey, an adap­ta­tion of the 1970s Hanna-Barbera ani­mated TV series Hong Kong Phooey, Alcon co-founders and co-CEOs Brod­er­ick John­son and Andrew Kosove announced Wednesday.

In addi­tion to voic­ing the char­ac­ter of Don­key in the box-office hit Shrek fran­chise, Mur­phy was also the voice of Mushu the Dragon in the suc­cess­ful ani­mated epic Mulan. Mur­phy will next be seen in the come­dies Tower Heist (co-starring Ben Stiller) from Uni­ver­sal Stu­dios and A Thou­sand Words from DreamWorks.

Alex Zamm (Dr. Dolit­tle: Mil­lion Dol­lar Mutts, Tooth Fairy 2) will direct. Kosove and John­son will pro­duce with Jay Stern and Brett Rat­ner. Steven P. Weg­ner will exec­u­tive produce.

Said John­son and Kosove: “We could not be hap­pier that Eddie Mur­phy will star as Phooey. There is no over­stat­ing his con­tri­bu­tions to cin­ema, and to such endur­ing stars of fam­ily enter­tain­ments such as Shrek and Dr. Doolit­tle. We look for­ward to watch­ing him reimag­ine yet another clas­sic character.”

Based on the cult clas­sic series, a mild-mannered dog named Penry (Mur­phy) stum­bles into a mys­tic cer­e­mony and is acci­den­tally granted mys­tic pow­ers, includ­ing the abil­ity to walk, talk and do kung fu. Under the tute­lage of his kung fu mas­ter, Penry dons a cos­tume and becomes Hong Kong Phooey, and, with the help of his trust­ing side­kick Spot the cat, cleans up a rogues’ gallery of wacky criminals.

Comedian-singer Scat­man Crothers voiced Penry/Hong Kong Phooey in the orig­i­nal series.

Tweet

Related Posts:

• Will Fer­rell, Liam Nee­son Join Ani­mated “Lego” Voice Cast
• Bur­rell, Charles hired to voice Peabody & Sherman
• Hud­son, Gad, Hader star in “Me & My Shadow” cast
• “Escape From Planet Earth” voice cast announced
• Dis­ney Grabs The Oscars