Project X, the production company behind Scream 5, has landed the rights to Jerry Lewis’ 1963 comedy The Nutty Professor, which was remade in 1996 starring Eddie Murphy.
Lewis played a nerdy college professor who, in order to make his life better, drinks a potion that turns him into a handsome man named Buddy Love, who pursues one of his students (Stella Stevens).
In addition to acting in the film, Lewis directed from a script he co-wrote with Bill Richmond, which was a parody of Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The Nutty Professor is regarded by many as the most memorable film of Lewis’ career.
The film was rebooted in 1996 with Murphy playing the professor, his alter ego Love, and five of the professor’s family members. Jada Pinkett Smith also starred in the reboot. The film was such a hit that a sequel, The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, was released in 2000.
