According to Variety, Paramount has decided to unload Coming 2 America—its sequel to the classic Eddie Murphy movie with almost the exact same name—onto Amazon Studios, which is reportedly paying “roughly $125 million” for the rights. Paramount had apparently been shopping the movie around lately in light of the theater industry’s ongoing COVID troubles, and Variety says the studio met with various streamers and considered selling it off to CBS All Access Paramount+ before settling on Amazon. There are some special deals that have to be “hammered out” before this is all finalized, like “two complex consumer marketing tie-ins” with McDonalds and Crown Royal, and Murphy has to “give his blessing” before this can happen, but Amazon supposedly wants to get this streaming on December 18. Assuming that happens, keep an eye out for some complex consumer marketing for fast food and whiskey around that time.
Coming 2 America—which really sounds like one of those joke titles we’d suggest, like Now You Don’t for Now You See Me 2 or Now You 3 Me for Now You See Me 3—picks up several years after the events of the original movie, with Eddie Murphy’s Prince Akeem set to finally become the ruler of Zamunda. Before that, though, he has to be introduced to a son he never met (Jermaine Fowler), who happens to be living in Queens, necessitating another trip to America. The movie will also star Arsenio Hall, Leslie Jones, Shari Headley, Tracy Morgan, Wesley Snipes, and James Earl Jones. It was directed by Dolemite Is My Name’s Craig Brewer, from a script co-written by Kenya Barris.