Eddie Murphy was at the top of his game. After hit movies like Beverly Hills Cop and Trading Places, he was the hottest star in Hollywood. Then his meteoric rise took a turn, and his cinematic crash was the box office flop The Adventures of Pluto Nash. It’s one part Casablanca, two parts Spaceballs, and a double dose of Eddie Murphy. The story features Canadians, Internet trolls, and a stalker. This is the history of the movie The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
Great Beginnings
Pluto Nash is one of those movies lots of people talk about but few have seen. It’s on every list of the greatest box office bombs. And for good reason, this movie lost over $90 million. But it was expected to be the biggest movie of the year.
The space comedy is set in the year 2047 on the moon. It stars Eddie Murphy as Pluto Nash, a nightclub owner on the moon who refuses to sell his club to the local mob. After they blow up his club, he sets out to find the Lunar Mafia’s mysterious head, Rex Crater. He’s joined by his singer and server Dina Lake (Rosario Dawson) and his robot bodyguard Bruno (Randy Quaid).
2002 was quite a year. The American Music Awards named Michael Jackson the “Artist of the Century.” Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man was the number-one movie of the year. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones opened to continue George Lucas’ dominance of the silver screen.
The story of Pluto Nash began almost twenty years earlier, with Neil Cuthbert. His first play won the prestigious Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Award for “Best New Play.” Cuthbert is best known for projects like Mystery Men (1999), Hocus Pocus (1993), and Return of Swamp Thing. In 1983, while working on stage plays and television pilots, he wrote a screenplay for a dramatic space opera he called “Pluto Nash.” The script about a man fighting a corrupt government made its way to the desk of producer Martin Bregman.
The late Bregman was a prolific producer with an impeccable track record. He’s best known for several hit movies through the 1970s and 1990s. Films like Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Sea of Love (1989), and Carlito’s Way (1993). Bergman greenlit the movie, with Eddie Murphy attached. But the plot was very different. A 1998 article announcing the casting said, “Murphy will play a somewhat shady lunar colonist who takes on an Earth-based conglomerate when it attempts to horn in on his space settlement.” That plot would change after decades of rewrites from an “Earth-based conglomerate” to the lunar mafia.
Several directors signed on to the project in the 1980s, with the movie trapped in development hell. In 1985, Rick Rosenthal, best known for Halloween II (1981) and Halloween: Resurrection (2002), was scheduled to direct with a late summer release. Four years later, Crocodile Dundee director Peter Faiman was attached to the film, but that deal fell through too.
In 1989, Ron Underwood, who’d directed hit films like Tremors (1990) and City Slickers, signed on to direct. Castle Rock Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros., was on board to bring the high-concept movie to theaters. After a series of flops, Time Warner integrated Castle Rock Entertainment into Warner Bros. in 1996.
All the while, the movie was waiting to be made. In 1996, Australian production company Village Roadshow struck gold with The Matrix and decided to move forward with forty Warner Bros. films, including Pluto Nash. To cover the special effects for the film, the studio set a budget of $80 million. Twenty percent of that budget reportedly went to star Eddie Murphy.
Eddie Murphy Raw
Eddie Murphy started as a comedian and achieved stardom on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1980 to 1984. At 19, he was the youngest cast member, and his years of stand-up had honed his comedy skills to a razor-sharp wit. Murphy developed dozens of characters and impressions for the show, from Buckwheat to Stevie Wonder. He transitioned to film with blockbuster hits like 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop, and Coming to America. His stand-up comedy specials, Raw and Delirious, were also blockbuster hits.
While Murphy had some setbacks in the 1990s, he remained a household name in 1998. Several of his family-friendly roles had taken off, like Mulan (1998), Dr. Dolittle (1998), and the Shrek series. He was number 21 in Forbes’ 1999 Celebrity 100 Power Ranking. His rumored salary of $20 million seemed like a bargain. But then Murphy hit a series of flops, like Boomerang, Harlem Nights, and Vampire in Brooklyn. His career got a boost with the remakes of The Nutty Professor and Dr. Dolittle. It seemed like the perfect time for an Eddie Murphy science-fiction comedy. In 2000, Village Roadshow began production on The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
But Murphy had developed a reputation for being a diva. For example, he demanded new toiletries and clothes in his trailer every day. Over the years, Murphy demanded multiple rewrites of the script. After many rewrites by a dozen uncredited writers from movies like North, Mr. Baseball, and Little Big League. The director felt the script lacked something, but the studio pressed on. With an all-star producer like Bregman and a box office star like Eddie Murphy, the movie felt like a lock.
Casting continued with its search for a female co-star and romantic lead. Jennifer Lopez was the first choice for the role of Dina Lake. She turned it down. Halle Berry was cast but had to drop out. She was preparing for her wedding to Eric Benet. This is probably the greatest thing her ex-husband ever did for her. So I’m sure she’s thanking him every day that she missed out on the part. The role went to the up-and-coming actress Rosario Dawson.
Rosario Dawson was born in New York and was discovered by filmmaker Larry Clark at sixteen. He cast her in his controversial Sundance and Cannes hit Kids (1995). Throughout her career, Dawson has balanced her career with commercial fare such as Josie and the Pussycats and Men in Black 2 with lower-budget projects like Spike Lee’s 25th Hour and Ed Burns’ Sidewalks of New York.
Several other star-studded actors were cast as well. Oscar, Emmy, and Golden Globe-nominated actor Randy Quaid plays Nash’s robot bodyguard Bruno. Quail had appeared in the science fiction movie Independence Day (1997) and won awards for The Last Detail. While the robot has a childlike innocence, his hulking 6’4” frame gives him the right amount of menace for a bodyguard. Emmy-winning actor Joe Pantoliano plays the mafia hitman Mogan. He had played a policeman in Blue Heat, NYPD Blue, and Bad Boys, but had a resurgence in his career by playing a mafia soldier on the hit HBO series The Sopranos. Comedian Jay Mohr plays the kilt-wearing lounge singer Tony Francis. Mohr was a standup comedy veteran but had started an acting career with Jerry Maguire. Emmy Award-winning actor Peter Boyle (Young Frankenstein, X-Files, Everybody Loves Raymond) played Nash’s friend Rowland. Academy Award-nominated actor Burt Young (Rocky, Chinatown) plays a mobster named Gino. Famous blaxploitation actress Pam Grier (Coffy, Foxy Brown, Escape From L.A.) plays Nash’s mother, Flura even though she’s only 12 years older than Murphy. Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning British actor John Cleese has a cameo as a holographic chauffeur named James. A surprise cameo by Oscar-nominated and Emmy-award-winning actor Alec Baldwin (Beetlejuice, Working Girl, Married to the Mob).
Nash Takes Off
30 years is a long time to work on a script. Over the years, the script was rewritten from a smuggler fighting an evil government to a nightclub owner fighting the mafia.
The plan was to film it in London but in the end, they started filming in relatively low-cost Montreal and Toronto, Canada, to save money. A huge set was built in 2000 for the car chase scene on the moon. It was the biggest movie set they’d ever made in Montreal. They shot for six months.
Costume designer Ha Nguyen worked with Murphy on Vampire in Brooklyn (1995), The Nutty Professor (1996), and Metro (1997). She joined him in the film and designed elaborate clothing for the film. Unlike many sci-fi costumes with gray and black, the ones in Pluto Nash are bright and vibrant. Even Murphy’s space suit is shiny red and gold to match his flashy suits.
Director Ron Underwood described Eddie Murphy as pleasant but difficult to work with. Normally, actors come on set to block or plan out shots, but Murphy refused. He only came on set to shoot his scenes, and then he would leave. This would drag on the filming time.
He also didn’t bother to learn his lines until the day of shooting. But the director and co-star, Rosario Dawson, said he was a quick learner. “Eddie is amazing at how quickly he gets the lines,” she told Starlog Magazine. “He would come on the set and look at the lines and memorize them right there. We would go through it once or twice, and then just do the scene. He’s one of those people with photographic memories. He’ll pick it up and see what’s funny and what’s not and just work with it, rewrite it and go from there.”
But, because he hadn’t read the script, he would want to rewrite scenes during filming. Murphy and the director argued about changes to the scene on the day of shooting. This lack of interest seemed to be reflected in the final film, as many reviewers felt Murphy played the role with a lack of interest and enthusiasm.
Pluto Nash was scheduled for an April 6, 2002 release. But the worst was yet to come.
Bad Buzz
The studio did a test screening in California using a rough cut with no special effects. The audience’s reaction was bad. Really bad. But it got worse. One of the viewers was an anonymous critic for Ain’t It Cool News.
Ain’t It Cool News is a website started in 1996 by creator Harry Knowles. The message board was notoriously powerful at the time for its insider scoops and movie reviews. In 2000, Ain’t It Cool published a scathing review of Pluto Nash that rocked the internet. It said Murphy’s new movie had “lame action and almost no laughs.” He said the movie should be “blown out of an airlock.” That phrase came to epitomize the critical reaction. Time magazine picked the quote for an article on the movie titled, “In Space, No One Can Hear You Yawn“.
The studio panicked and Oscar-winning editor Alan Heim was brought in to try and save the movie. He watched the three-hour work print and cut some of the jokes. Heim also recommended reshooting a new opening, a new introduction of the love interest, and a new ending. They decided to try to save the movie with expensive reshoots.
The release date was pushed to the fall, and the cast and crew went to Los Angeles for two weeks of reshoots. This pushed the budget to a reported $100 million. Eddie Murphy financed many of the reshoots while the film floundered in post-production. He wrote and directed many of the new scenes.
Then the studio moved the release again to avoid competing with another upcoming cop buddy movie. Murphy and Robert DeNiro starred in the movie Showtime, and everyone anticipated a huge release. What’s that? You’ve never heard of Showtime? Most people haven’t. The blockbuster vehicle starring Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy, and Sandra Bullock bombed in theaters. But it was too late. The buzz for the film was bad, and repeatedly pushing a release date rarely helps a movie.
But this means the movie faced an avalanche of bad press, two release date changes, and a bunch of nervous executives. Plus, Eddie Murphy’s star power had waned. By 2002, Eddie Murphy had dropped out of Forbes’s top 100 power rankings. His power in Hollywood was gone. He became a joke in the industry and on Saturday Night Live.
To compensate for the bad press, Warner Bros. does a big marketing push focusing on Eddie Murphy and promising high-flying space adventures. This adds millions to the already exploding budget. But the star, Eddie Murphy, refuses to promote the film.
However, the internet wasn’t done trashing the upcoming film. Weeks before the film was scheduled to open, an E! Online poll asked readers which film was the most likely to bomb. The overwhelming winner? Pluto Nash.
The movie opens on Friday, August 16, 2002, with a thud.
Nash Crash Lands
After over 20 years, Pluto Nash finally hits theaters. Usually, before a movie opens, it’s screened by critics. Eddie Murphy’s latest film isn’t shown to critics. There are many reasons why studios don’t give a movie a press screening. For example, Star Wars movies are often barred from critics because LucasFilm worries about spoilers. But usually, the studio knows what the reaction will be. And boy were they right.
On its first day, it grossed about $700,000 in the US. It opened tenth behind Dana Carvey’s box office bomb, Master of Disguise. So that tells you something.
The critics destroyed Pluto Nash with savage reviews complaining about the crass humor, Eddie Murphy’s poor acting, and the lackluster special effects. Audiences agreed, and it earned a disappointing “C-” grade from theatergoers, according to CinemaScore.
It limped to $4.4 million in the US and a little over $7 million worldwide. Here’s a reminder. Pluto Nash cost over $100,000,000. By some estimates, Warner Bros. lost 93% of their money. That’s $93 million. That’s more than the current Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Oceania country of Tuvalu ($60 million).
Why Did Pluto Nash Fail?
Most people blame the script for the movie’s failure, and it’s probably a huge factor. With so many writers and rewrites on it, there’s no way to know who to blame. Eddie Murphy demanded multiple rewrites and in the final version, he insisted that they write the film straight and he would “bring the comedy”. So maybe we can blame Eddie Murphy for the terrible jokes. However, several other factors led the movie to tank so hard.
First, Eddie Murphy’s star power had dimmed by this time. While his career got a jolt with Nutty Professor and voicing the donkey in Shrek, it slid lower with Life, Nutty Professor II, and Showtime. By the time The Adventures of Pluto Nash was released, it didn’t take much to convince moviegoers that Murphy wasn’t worth the price of a movie ticket. Usually, a big name can bring in a crowd, but Murphy was not a big name.
Second, the changes to the release dates. January, February, August, and September are often considered “dump months” by movie studios. Because of these factors, they often release movies that don’t perform well at test screenings in these months.
Third, Pluto Nash faced some unexpected competition in the Vin Diesel action film xXx and the teen girl sports film Blue Crush. Both overperformed and didn’t leave much room for a poorly reviewed science-fiction comedy.
Finally, comedy is hard. Comedy is even harder when the movie was written 20 years ago with outdated jokes. For example. There’s a joke about America Online (AOL) in the film. But AOL stopped being hot in the 1990s. There were also a couple of references to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Both Trump and Clinton are big names in politics now. But in 2002, they weren’t nearly as famous.
The off-color humor didn’t help. Jokes like the scene with Dawson’s expanding breasts and Bruno’s joke about having sex with a robot made the movie too bawdy for kids but too silly for adults. The over-the-top humor worked in The Nutty Professor, but it didn’t work in The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
Add a bunch of rewrites, and the humor gets squeezed out of it. Comedy is hard, but science-fiction comedy is even harder, and there are mountains of failed sci-fi comedy movies in the dustbin of history. Men in Black II soared that same year. But other science-fiction comedies like Wild, Wild West (1999) and Evolution (2001) tanked.
The Aftermath
Village Roadshow had been excited about the box office success of the third Matrix movie, which broke box office records. But in their 2003 annual report, they had to say that success was offset “to an extent by the disappointing results of The Adventures of Pluto Nash and [the science fiction horror film] Dreamcatcher.”
Several of the actors have looked back on the movie with a mixture of fondness and regret. The most outspoken is Eddie Murphy. He later admitted that he took many films during this period for the money. In 2015, he told The Washington Post, “The [paycheck] movies are over for me.” Specifically, he told Barbara Walters, “I’m not sitting talking s**t about Pluto Nash. In fact, at my house, we have Pluto Nash week! We celebrate it!” Whether this is true or not, we may never know, but he did say on Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee that of all the characters he’s played, Pluto Nash is the closest to his real personality. Murphy won the Mark Twain Award for humor and a Golden Globe Award. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for “Best Supporting Actor” in Dreamgirls. His career took a dive, but it made him stronger as an actor, and he chose more diverse roles.
On Twitter, John Cleese lists Pluto Nash as one of his “not so great” films. But he has a long and illustrious career in British comedy, and the appearance didn’t hurt him. Joe Pantaliano was more blunt saying, “You usually can’t tell when a movie is going to be [bad], but on that one, you could. And I think Ron Underwood, the director, got victimized by that because that guy is good. But because of the material and the style in which some players came to work, we were off the mark, you know? A lot of hanky-panky going on there. So, I wasn’t surprised. I was surprised it turned out to be better than I thought it was going to be.” At Wizard World 2017 Rosario Dawson said, “Only my Mom likes Pluto Nash”. But her career got better over the years including winning an NAACP award.
Luis Guzman plays Felix Laranga, a Puerto Rican smuggler who deals in animals and illegal casino chips and dice. Guzman describes the time he spent on the set of the notorious Eddie Murphy bomb as an “interesting experience.” But he is proud that the movie makes him the first “Puerto Rican on the moon, flying the island’s flag proudly in his Moon-Car.”
Alec Baldwin only had a cameo as Michael Zoroaster Marucci (M.Z.M.) and went uncredited. During the production, he met Canadian actress and publicist Genevieve Sabourin, who would eventually be convicted of stalking him. Ten years after filming Pluto Nash Baldwin met her for dinner. Suddenly, she began barraging him with emails and phone calls. Sabourin proposed marriage to him and even offered to have his child. Eventually, she showed up at his Hampton and Manhattan homes. She was arrested outside his New York apartment in 2012. At the trial, she was held in contempt of court for screaming and yelling. Sabourin was sentenced to six months in jail.
The person who suffered the most was director Ron Underwood. Underwood’s career turned out very differently after this box office bomb. The years-long process wore him out. He was tired of the rigors of theatrical films.
“I lost some of my drive for getting involved with another film like that,” he later told SlashFilm. “Or not like that—just another feature film. Between Mighty Joe Young and that, that was seven years of my life. And it was hard after Pluto Nash to think of going into a long period of working on a film.”
Underwood turned to television directing shows like Monk, Ugly Betty, and Scandal. Some consider it a step down but he enjoys it. “I get great satisfaction from directing television,” the director said. “And the actors are usually incredibly grateful for direction and lovely to work with. The crews I’m inspired by constantly. And every month I’m pretty much with a different crew; a different cast; a different tone. Which is so much fun for me.”
The Adventures of Pluto Nash was released internationally and had such fun titles as Germany’s “Im Kampf Gegen die Mondmafia,” which, according to Google, means “In the Fight Against the Moon Mafia”. Hungary featured the title “Hold Volt, Hol Nem Volt” or “It Was a Moon Where It Wasn’t”. In China it has 星際冒險王, or “Star Adventure King.”. In Serbia, it’s “Occasions Pluto Neša,” whatever that means. If you have better translations, let us know in the comments.
Pluto Nash was released on DVD and VHS in the US on November 19, 2002, by Warner Home Video, and there’s a Blu-ray version. Today, you can pick up the DVD on Amazon or watch it on Amazon Prime, and even the videotape if you know where to look.
In the end, the cast and crew made a bad film. But it’s a film that stands as a monument to actor Hubris, the challenge of sci-fi comedy, and the rigors of production hell. It’s a lesson studios have a hard time forgetting, but The Adventures of Pluto Nash can never be forgotten.
What do you think killed Pluto Nash? If you’ve seen the movie, do you agree that it’s a bad movie?
