Coming To America Sequel Set For Release On December 18

The highly-anticipated sequel of Coming To America could be released just before Christmas and we couldn't be happier.

Variety reports Amazon Prime is trying to pick up the rights to the film, starring Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall, and will debut it on December 18. What a great early Christmas present for us.

Paramount Pictures is in the process of selling the movie, named Coming 2 America, for around $125 million to Amazon. Paramount reportedly believes it won't have any theatrical success while the coronavirus pandemic is ongoing.

The same fate was handed to the live-action remake of Disney's Mulan, which was meant to debut in cinemas around the world until the Micky Mouse Corporation decided it would be better to just whack it on their streaming service.

The original Coming to America was a cult classic when it premiered in 1988.

Paramount Pictures

It told the story Prince Akeem (Murphy), who leaves Africa for New York on a quest to find true love after rejecting an arranged marriage. Once in the US, he meets, and falls in love with, Lisa (played by Shari Headley).

Director of Coming 2 America Craig Brewer told Entertainment Weekly they are well aware that audiences will have a very high expectations of the sequel because the original was so well received.

"There's this moment that I always go back to: when we were screening Dolemite Is My Name, I worked on Empire a little bit, so I had some of the writers come and take a look at the movie," Brewer said back in December.

"They were all in the back row of the screening room, and Eddie and Arsenio walked in and sat down in the second row, just like old friends do. And I could see everybody in the back's eyes getting big and pointing down to both of them."

Murphy has also praised the team for making a brilliant film.

Speaking with Antonio Banderas for Variety's Actors on Actors series, he said: "I'm just over the moon with how it's turned out."

He told his Shrek co-star that the movie's creators had manage to find a 'clever way' to update Prince Akeem's story - explaining: "We figured out a way to connect it, and that's what we're doing now."

As long as the deal between Amazon Studios and Paramount goes through we can get excited for the big December 18 release date.

Topics: Entertainment, TV and Film

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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