“Eddie was just a dream that I thought would never happen. I thought he’s never going to do this,” reveals screenwriter Susan McMartin about the possibility of Oscar nominee Eddie Murphy starring in her first film “Mr. Church.” In our recent chat (watch above), she adds, “How amazing would it be, not only because he sort of resembles the real Mr. Church. I’m such a huge fan of Eddie Murphy’s and always have been. I’ve loved (his) comedies but also his dramatic roles. Even in dramas, he finds ways to infuse in his comedy. When he said yes, I was just beside myself and felt like this was going to be a really special experience.”
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The movie from Cinelou Films and director Bruce Beresford (“Driving Miss Daisy”) opens nationwide on September 16 and is based on the real life of its scribe. The daughter in the film is renamed Charlie Brody and is played in her teens and twenties by Britt Robertson. Mr. Church as portrayed by Murphy as the mysterious man who helped raise her beginning in the 1970s and was a self-taught master of cooking, jazz piano, gardening, painting and more. Watch our recent video chats with Eddie Murphy and Britt Robertson.
McMartin says, “I wrote the movie because I really wanted to tell the story of this friendship that I experienced that meant the world to me. The process of writing it was really quick but getting it made took a really long time. .. It took forever to get made and then we shot it in 22 days… There’s a movie about the making of this movie.”
While this is her first film screenplay, McMartin has been a very successful producer and writer for television. She has worked for several years with Chuck Lorre on “Two and a Half Men” and “Mom.”
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