Throughout the past couple years, Eddie Murphy has made a cottage industry out of streaming comedies. As the 2025 movie The Pickup continues that trend this weekend, details about a new project has emerged that will put him in league with some Happy Gilmore 2 talent. If you thought that was surprising, wait until you hear what it might be about based on early details!
Eddie Murphy’s Next Film Teams Him With The Director Of Happy Gilmore 2
First things first, let’s announce that our iconic Shrek 5 cast member is on board for a new movie called Playas Ball, per reporting from Deadline. The project is set to be directed by Happy 2’s director Kyle Newacheck, a Netflix mainstay who’s also helmed Game Over, Man and the first Murder Mystery with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston.
It also serves as a reunion between Eddie Murphy and production company Imagine Entertainment - a relationship that started with 1996’s The Nutty Professor. Both parties re-teamed most recently in 2023’s Amazon Prime Video subscription-driver Candy Cane Lane. That makes trying to pin the exact home for this project a bit more difficult, as that information hasn’t been provided at this time.
The 2023 Cecil B. DeMille Award winner seems to have alternated between Netflix and Prime Video, starting with the former’s Dolemite is My Name in 2019. If that pattern keeps up, then Playas Ball could be a Netflix original, which would keep Kyle Newacheck in familiar waters as well.
Or, perhaps emboldened by The Naked Gun’s solid box office debut, this project could be made as a theatrical play. Which would make sense, considering that while the plot to the picture is top secret, the details that are out in the open would be a very theatrical prospect.
The Vague Description Of Playas Ball Unexpectedly Mixes Two Killer Eddie Murphy Movies
You’re probably looking at your screen and thinking “Mike, what could possibly be so ‘top secret’ about an Eddie Murphy movie that isn’t related to Shrek?” I’m glad you asked that, or at least played along and read that sentence, as the other part of this report’s big announcement included this vague description of Playas Ball:
...an action comedy about the undead.
Reading those six words brought two movies to mind: the blockbuster franchise Beverly Hills Cop, as well as Mr. Murphy’s criminally underrated The Haunted Mansion from 2003. So picture Axel Foley fighting through zombies and/or vampires, while cracking jokes in a potentially R-rated adventure.
However, if you take the title Playas Ball at face value, all of this action could use the real-life Players Ball - which is described on Wikipedia as “an annual gathering of pimps.” So throw in a little bit of From Dusk ‘til Dawn into the mix as a bonus, and you have a movie that sounds downright entertaining.
Unfortunately, we don’t know when this miraculous mashup is looking to land in front of audiences. Nor do we know if Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’s wild streaming success has inspired the powers-that-be to send this flick to the big screen. That won’t stop Eddie Murphy fans from pondering how this one will play out, especially since The Pickup can now be streamed on Prime Video.
