- Director Craig Brewer said he had the idea to tip “Trading Places”.
- Eddie Murphy’s comedy is also mentioned in 1988’s “Coming to America”.
- “I still believe that there is a crossover between ‘Coming to America’ and ‘Trading Places’,” Brewer told Insider.
- Visit the Insider home page for more stories.
“Coming 2 America” is full of links to the first film. But there is also a scene in the sequence that highlights another classic Eddie Murphy film.
In the scene where Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler), Akeem’s (Eddie Murphy) illegitimate son, goes for a job interview, he sits down and calls the interviewer (played by Colin Jost) Mr. Duke. This should ring a bell for Murphy fans, but then the next moment should really take that home when Duke tells Lavelle to just call him Calvin because “my dad is Mr. Duke and my grandfather and great-uncle who founded Duke & Duke. “
Next, we see an oil painting by Randolph Duke (Ralph Bellamy) and Mortimer Duke (Don Ameche) on Calvin’s wall. They are the greedy brothers who play the villains in the 1983 comedy Eddie Murphy / Dan Aykroyd “Trading Places”. For those with a really keen eye, you’ll notice the company sign that says “D&D Digital Corporation” in the reception room.
D&D stands for Duke and Duke, a callback to “Trading Places”.
Amazon Studios
“Coming 2 America” director Craig Brewer said the scene originally would not pay tribute to “Trading Places”.
“That whole scene would be that of someone who is not connected to the Dukes,” Brewer told Insider. “Calvin would be just a guy who would interview Lavelle.”
But then Brewer said that an idea came up.
“I thought, what if this is the company that basically emerged from the ashes of the Dukes’ misfortune when Akeem gave them money to ‘Come to America’,” said Brewer.
Don Ameche as Mortimer Duke in “Coming to America”.
Paramount
That’s right, there is a tip for “Trading Places” in 1988, “Coming to America”. In a scene in which Akeem is walking with Lisa (Shari Headley), he stops to give two homeless people a change. But that change is actually thousands of dollars and it has been revealed that the homeless are Randolph and Mortimer Duke. Clearly, the two went through difficult times after going bankrupt after the “Trading Places” events.
Upon seeing the money, Randolph proclaims, “Mortimer, we are back.”
“So it is for this full circle that the company that Lavelle is interviewing was basically founded with the money that Akeem gave the Dukes,” said Brewer.
And to increase the authenticity of the scene, the oil painting on the wall was “Trading Places”.
The oil painting of the Dukes on Calvin’s wall in “Coming 2 America” is the same as it was in “Trading Places”.
Amazon Studios
“We got that painting from Paramount’s safe,” said Brewer, referring to the studio that did “Trading Places”. “They sent us. We just wanted to make it clear that this is a Duke business.”
Brewer has already made two films with Murphy. Before “Coming 2 America”, he did “Dolemite Is My Name” with him. Could they come together for a sequence of “Trading Places”?
“I still believe there is a crossover film to do with ‘Coming to America’ and ‘Trading Places’, both starring Eddie Murphy,” said Brewer.
“Coming 2 America” is now available on Amazon Prime Video.