Paramount Hires Original “Coming to America” Writers to Pen Sequel for Eddie Murphy (Exclusive)

Paramount Pictures

A sequel to Eddie Murphy’s classic 1988 comedy Coming to America is confirmed to be in the works at Paramount, which has hired original writers Barry Blaustein and David Sheffield to pen a new Murphy vehicle, the Tracking Board has exclusively learned.

Kevin Misher is producing COMING TO AMERICA 2, and plot details of the sequel are being kept under wraps.

John Landis directed the original movie, which was based on an original story by Murphy. He played Prince Akeem Joffer, who travels from the fictional African nation of Zamunda to the United States in the hopes of finding a wife.

The film co-starred Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, Shari Headley and John Amos, as well as Louie Anderson, Jake Steinfeld, Allison Dean, Frankie Faison, Eriq La Salle and Paul Bates.

Coming to America grossed an astounding $288 million worldwide and went on to spawn a brief spinoff TV series.

Murphy recently teased a sequel on his Twitter feed before claiming it had been hacked and deleting not just the tweet, but his entire account. TMZ followed up and reported a sequel seemed to be in the offing, but no one reported that Blaustein and Sheffield had closed a deal to return until now.

Following the success of Coming to America, Blaustein and Sheffield went on to work with Murphy on Boomerang, The Nutty Professor and Nutty Professor II: The Klumps. They also co-wrote The Honeymooners together, while Blaustein directed the 2005 Johnny Knoxville vehicle The Ringer. The duo are represented by Paradigm.

 Jeff Sneider | Editor in Chief