Spike Lee and writer John Ridley have signed on to do an HBO biopic of Marion Barry, with Eddie Murphy attached to play Barry. No word on whether Murphy will also play Barry’s Jewish lawyer, his Italian limo driver, and his sassy, 400-pound secretary who constantly argue about boxing, but you’d think that’d be right in his wheelhouse.

Ridley is writing the script based on several pieces of source material, including the 1994 book Dream City by D.C. journalists Harry Jaffe and Tom Sherwood, who will serve as consultants. Lee is on board to direct. The two are executive producing with Murphy. HBO previously developed a Marion Barry biopic a decade ago with Jamie Foxx attached to star and Chris Rock to executive produce, but the project didn’t go forward. Barry, currently a member of the Council of the District Of Columbia, did two terms as a mayor of D.C., from 1979-91 and 1995-99, separated by a six-month stint in federal prison on drug charges that stems from a video of him smoking crack cocaine. [Deadline]

Barry got arrested with a prostitute in his hotel room and went from rising-star politician to prisoner back to mayor again and eventually to City Council. Which sort of mirrors Eddie Murphy’s career path as he went from hot young comedian, then got arrested with a tranny in his car and made Holy Man and Pluto Nash, then starred in The Nutty Professor and Dr. Doolittle on his comeback tour, and eventually ended up in a Brett Ratner film, the movie equivalent of the DC City Council. (I assume the DC Council gets to eat shrimp cocktail at all the official functions).

Yesterday afternoon, Brett Ratner stepped down as Oscars host in the wake of all the terrible things he said about rehearsal, Asians, Lindsay Lohan, and shrimp (but mostly because he used the F-A-G word). There was much speculation about whether Eddie Murphy, who’d been hand-fondled by Ratner to host the telecast (and who used that same word quite a few times in an even worse context in his most famous comedy special), would stay on as emcee. The short answer: no, he won’t.

Commented Murphy, “First and foremost I want to say that I completely understand and support each party’s decision with regard to a change of producers for this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. I was truly looking forward to being a part of the show that our production team and writers were just starting to develop, but I’m sure that the new production team and host will do an equally great job.” [HollywoodReporter]

Yes, how could one of the world’s most famous comedians ever hope to host an awards show without the guidance of the guy who made Money Talks? It would be LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE. Why, he might forget to be sassy! Meanwhile, I think the best Oscars suggestion I’ve heard came from Steven Rosenthal on Twitter:

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Eddie Murphy’s Rolling Stone interview (in advance of Tower Heist) is currently only available in the print edition of the magazine, which I don’t have yet, so we’ve had to be content with the various tidbits that have been leaking out (look, no one ever said we were professional). There’s a question mark in this headline because it’s hard to know how serious Eddie was when he said this. I would say he’s joking, but Eddie Murphy hasn’t done that in a few years.

Asked about Tower Heist, which was conceived as a “black Ocean’s 11″ starring Chris Tucker, Martin Lawrence, and Chris Rock, Murphy said:

“I still want to do something like that”, Murphy says, adding that he had Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Tracey Morgan and Martin Lawrence all lined up for that first incarnation of “Tower Heist”. “I have this idea called ‘Jamal and Tyrell and Omar and Brick and Michael’s Wack-Ass Weekend’ about this group of guys who get abducted by aliens on the way to the fights. I’m writing that now.” [Moviehole]

Again, I’m inclined to think he’s joking, but considering he did a movie where he played the tiny captain of an alien vessel shaped like his own body not too long ago, who knows? I hope this isn’t his idea of tackling more “edgy” material (though I suppose it could be considered “dark”). Remember in Not Another Teen Movie where the black guy says that, as the token black guy in the movie, his job is just to stand around saying stuff like “DAMN!” and “OH THAT IS WACK!”? This sounds like an entire movie of just that. That said, I’ll probably see it if Tracy Morgan’s still in it. I could watch that man shout confusedly for hours.

See also: Homeboys in Outer Space
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The only thing Eddie Murphy does less than interviews is make good movies, so when he recently sat down with Rolling Stone to address both, it was kind of a big deal. Among his intriguing statements were that he’s through making family movies and is looking for “edgy stuff.” Let’s just hope “edgy” doesn’t mean more Brett Ratner movies, like the one he’s in next month. Doing 15 years of fatsuit movies tends to warp your perspective.

Murphy says that his days of making family movies may be over. “I don’t have any interest in that right now,” he says. “There’s really no blueprint, but I’m trying to do some edgy stuff. And I only want to do what I really want to do, otherwise I’m content to sit here and play my guitar all day. I always tell people now that I’m a semi-retired gentleman of leisure, and occasionally I’ll go do some work to break the boredom up.”

“I’ve already accomplished everything I wanted to. Right now I’m just, like, content to focus on my music or whatever.” (*blows bangs out of eyes, plays intro to “Tainted Love” on Casio*)

Murphy has decided not to make Beverly Hills Cop IV. [Which was also rumored to be a Ratner project. -Ed.] “They’re not doing it,” he says. “What I’m trying to do now is produce a TV show starring Axel Foley’s son, and Axel is the chief of police now in Detroit. I’d do the pilot, show up here and there. None of the movie scripts were right; it was trying to force the premise. If you have to force something, you shouldn’t be doing it. It was always a rehash of the old thing. It was always wrong.”

YOU MIGHT AS WELL SLAP THE FOOD RIGHT OUT OF JUDGE REINHOLD’S MOUTH, YOU COLD-HEARTED SON OF A BITCH!

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According to some reports, the trailer for Brett Ratner’s film, Tower Heist, allegedly contained “jokes.” One such “joke” involved Eddie Murphy’s character being reunited with an old schoolmate played by Ben Stiller, saying, “Oh I remember you! You the little seizure boy! Used to have them seizures all the time!”

Actor Greg Grunberg (best known for his portrayal of Who and Never Heard of Him in The Wankening), who has an epileptic son, apparently saw the trailer and took offense. Or at least, did whatever it’s called where you ignore context to advance your own agenda. Grunberg tweeted:

“TERRIBLY OFFENSIVE TRAILER for #TowerHeist – Making fun @ people w/ seizures is NOT FUNNY & WRONG! “Seizure Boy!” REALLY? #Boycott RT.”

And clearly, this gentleman is an authority on what’s funny. OBVIOUSLY the subtext of the “joke” was “HAHA, AREN’T EPILEPTIC KIDS ASSHOLES?”, and not “Look what an insensitive prick this character is.” Luckily, Brett Ratner is a slovenly, crumb-covered bastion of integrity, and he stood behind the line one hundred per– wait, what’s that? He immediately issued an apology and offered to pull the line from the commercials?

TalkAboutIt.org, an organization that Grunberg founded which is devoted to raising awareness about epilepsy, said in a post on its website over the weekend that Ratner had issued an apology to the actor.
“I am so sorry you are offended. … I sincerely feel bad,” Ratner wrote to Grunberg.
The organization added that Ratner has asked Universal Studios to change the movie’s marketing campaign by removing the offensive jokes from planned television spots.
After receiving the apology from Ratner, Grunberg tweeted the news with a message to the director.
“THANKS @BrettRatner for ur SINCERE APOLOGY to the Epilepsy Community! I’m lifting my personal boycott of ur hilarious film #TowerHeist RT,” he wrote. [THR]

While my blood pressure rises, let’s see if I can recap: Greg Grunberg says a joke he misunderstood is “NOT FUNNY & WRONG” and calls for a boycott. Brett Ratner says “I’m so sorry! Let’s pretend the joke isn’t in my movie even though it totally still is! Will that help?” And then Greg Grunberg is all like, “PERFECT. A token PR movie is exactly what I was after! Have I mentioned you’re hilarious?”

And people say Hollywood is full of phonies.