By George & Josh Bate
From Beverly Hills Cop to 48 Hours and beyond, Eddie Murphy arguably reigns supreme as the king of action comedies. Now, the legendary comedian returns to the genre that marked his feature film debut with The Pickup, a new heist action-comedy from director Tim Story (Ride Along, Fantastic Four) debuting August 6 on Prime Video.
The HoloFiles had the opportunity to attend a press conference with The Pickup director Tim Story and stars Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, and Keke Palmer in which the team discussed their new film, their “surgical” approach to crafting a good comedy, what it was like to work with one another, and more.
The Pickup follows two armored truck drivers (Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson), whose routine cash pickup takes a wild turn when they are ambushed by a team of thieves (led by Keke Palmer’s character). Although the plot seems intense, star Davidson described the movie as a “fun, early 2000s old school action comedy,” while Murphy said the movie reminds him more of “’80s buddy movie comedies,” many of which Murphy was a part of. Director Tim Story echoed this sentiment, saying that he wanted to craft “a movie of the ’80s.” In situating tons of laughs in the context of an exhilarating story, it seems Story has done just that.
With a trio of Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, and Keke Palmer at its center, The Pickup bolsters titans of the comedy genre spanning generations. “It was a dream come true,” Palmer explained as she detailed reuniting with Davidson (who she collaborated with on the Audible original Hit Job) and the “honor” of working with the legendary Eddie Murphy. Murphy and Palmer bonded over their shared opinion that The Nutty Professor is their favorite movie in Murphy’s filmography, while Palmer affectionately expressed a desire to work with Murphy again. “Call me, Eddie!” she shouted.
To take advantage of the comedic talents of his stacked cast, director Tim Story allowed his actors to go off script, which led to some of the film’s best laughs. “Tim was very trusting to all of us,” Davidson said. “So we would get one [take] as scripted and then he would just let us have fun and go off. And I think some of the best moments in the film are just us all messing around.
Tim Story elaborated on the team’s “surgical” approach to constructing an effective comedy. “If it works and an audience laughs, we keep it. If it doesn’t work, we get rid of it and that’s what’s fun. As you trim off all the fat, you end up with something that just makes it great. But that’s also great about what you saw a lot between Eddie and Pete and obviously Keke is that they just give you these nuggets, but at the same time, what’s fun about it is they’re also very surgical. Once they lock into what makes the scene work, they just give you more of that and it’s just how long do these stay in-takes. So that’s what’s always great about it.”
Unlike the lengthy development process for many films, The Pickup came together quickly. “The script was solid when I read it,” Murphy said. “Usually, these pieces take years to develop and then you to see a bunch of different drafts of the script. But this thing was like 90% there when I read it the first time it was like, ‘Hey, this could work.’ And then we got Tim and I was like, ‘Okay, well we’re making this movie.’ And it just came together really quick and the script being solid is why I jumped on it, so to speak.”
The chemistry between Murphy, Davidson, Palmer, and Story during the press conference was electric and previewed the kind of witty one-liners and fun back-and-forth we can expect when The Pickup hits Prime Video on August 6.
Check out the official trailer for The Pickup below….
