“The challenge with Eddie is that you have to put his brand on the right tin can,” said the consultant James Ulmer who rates the global bankability of actors. “His audiences are very straitjacketed in their expectations of him, and by that I mostly mean fat suit, fat suit, fat suit.”

Murphy’s name is a marketing hook on a DVD, and he remains one of the few American comedians who can deliver results overseas.

That’s not to say Murphy isn’t paying a price for his track record. Paramount recently rejected a biopic about Richard Pryor that had Murphy attached to star. The fourth Beverly Hills Cop is also stalled.

Murphy has other potential projects floating around—a third Nutty Professor is in development—and he has a guaranteed hit next spring in DreamWorks’ Shrek Forever After in which he reprises his vocal role as the sassy Donkey.But Murphy hasn’t been doing himself many favours when it comes to staying in Hollywood’s good graces. It didn’t help when he fought a paternity claim by the former Spice Girl Melanie Brown in 2007, only to have a DNA test prove him wrong.

And he can be difficult when it comes to promoting movies. He arrived at the Imagine That press junket nearly two hours late and was 45 minutes late to the premiere. Last summer, he failed to attend the Los Angeles premiere of Meet Dave.

Murphy’s next chance for a comeback will be early next year, when Paramount plans to release A Thousand Words, a high-concept comedic drama about a fast-talking agent who realises he only has 1,000 words left to utter before he dies.

... contd.