Taglines: Inside Sherman Klump, a party animal is about to break out.
The Nutty Professor movie storyline. Brilliant and obese scientist Sherman Klump invents a miraculous weight-loss solution. After a date with chemistry student Carla Purty goes badly, a depressed Klump tries the solution on himself. Though he instantly loses 250 pounds, the side effects include a second personality: an obnoxiously self-assertive braggart who calls himself Buddy Love. Buddy proves to be more popular than Sherman, but his arrogance and bad behavior quickly spiral out of control.
The Nutty Professor is a 1996 American comedy science fiction film starring Eddie Murphy. It is a remake of the 1963 film of the same name, which starred Jerry Lewis, which itself was a parody of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The film co-stars Jada Pinkett, James Coburn, Larry Miller, Dave Chappelle and John Ales. The original music score was composed by David Newman. The film won Best Makeup at the 69th Academy Awards.
Murphy portrays a university professor, Sherman Klump, a kind-hearted man who is morbidly obese. A research scientist, academic, and lecturer, Klump develops a miraculous, but experimental, weight-loss pharmaceutical, and hoping to win the affection of the girl of his dreams, tests it upon himself. Like the original film’s Julius Kelp, Klump’s vigorous, charismatic, but evil alter ego takes the name “Buddy Love”. Murphy plays a total of seven characters in the film, including Sherman, most of Sherman’s family (except for his nephew, Ernie Klump Jr. played by child actor Jamal Mixon), and an over-the-top parody of Richard Simmons.
The Nutty Professor was the first Tom Shadyac film to feature outtakes over the closing credits. The film also has a series of scenes with Murphy and comedian Dave Chappelle who plays insult comic, Reggie Warrington. Much of their dialogue was improvised.[citation needed] Murphy was one of Chappelle’s biggest comedic influences. Reggie Warrington is named after Reginald and Warrington Hudlin, brothers, and directors of one of Murphy’s previous films, Boomerang.
While the film was made with the help of Jerry Lewis (he was an executive producer for both this film and the 2000 sequel The Klumps), he later recanted his position in an interview in the January 30/February 6, 2009 edition of Entertainment Weekly magazine. He was quoted as saying, “I have such respect for Eddie, but I should not have done it. What I did was perfect the first time around and all you’re going to do is diminish that perfection by letting someone else do it.”
The Nutty Professor (1996)
Directed by: Tom Shadyac
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Jada Pinkett Smith, James Coburn, Larry Miller, Dave Chappelle, Patricia Wilson, Jamal Mixon, Nichole McAuley, Doug Williams
Screenplay by: David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein, Tom Shadyac, Steve Oedekerk
Production Design by: William A. Elliott
Cinematography by: Julio Macat
Film Editing by: Don Zimmerman
Costume Design by: Ha Nguyen
Set Decoration by: Kathryn Peters
Art Direction by: Greg Papalia
Music by: David Newman
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for crude humor and sexual references.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: June 28, 1996
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