“Put your weight on it!”

Eddie Murphy honors a legend of comedy and movies in Dolemite Is My Name, a new biopic coming to Netflix. Murphy plays Rudy Ray Moore, the comedian-turned-star of several outlandish action and crime films in the 1970s, including the sublime blaxploitation classic The Human Tornado. Here’s the film’s first trailer.

And here is the movie’s official synopsis:

Stung by a string of showbiz failures, floundering comedian Rudy Ray Moore (Academy Award nominee Eddie Murphy) has an epiphany that turns him into a word-of-mouth sensation: step onstage as someone else. Borrowing from the street mythology of 1970s Los Angeles, Moore assumes the persona of Dolemite, a pimp with a cane and an arsenal of obscene fables. However, his ambitions exceed selling bootleg records deemed too racy for mainstream radio stations to play. Moore convinces a social justice-minded dramatist (Keegan-Michael Key) to write his alter ego a film, incorporating kung fu, car chases, and Lady Reed (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), an ex-backup singer who becomes his unexpected comedic foil. Despite clashing with his pretentious director, D’Urville Martin (Wesley Snipes), and countless production hurdles at their studio in the dilapidated Dunbar Hotel, Moore’s Dolemite becomes a runaway box office smash and a defining movie of the Blaxploitation era.

In addition to director Craig Brewer, Dolemite Is My Name is from writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who co-wrote of some of the greatest biographical films ever, including Ed Wood and The People vs. Larry Flynt. It’s exactly who you want making a Rudy Ray Moore movie — and how could you ever find a better guy to play Moore than Eddie Murphy? Dolemite Is My Name will debut on Netflix this fall.

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