Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is revered among franchise die-hards (Trekkies/Trekkers/Trekkos, etc.) for its fascinating blend of humor, heart and marine-based weirdness. It’s also a motion picture that comes equipped with one of the more fascinating cinematic “what if?” scenarios in Eddie Murphy‘s decision to decline appearing in the movie. The subject has been addressed before, but Star Trek IV co-writer Steve Meerson has been kind enough to shed new light on Eddie’s would-be place in the franchise.
Chatting with The Hollywood Reporter, Meerson revealed that he and Peter Krikes wrote “seven and ten outlines” for the film with only the final outline scoring approval. Star Trek IV would ultimately get a rework from Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer and producer Harve Bennett. Meerson and Kirkes penned a role for Murphy, but it never ended up coming to fruition.
“It was always the same story that approved, but the original draft included a part for Eddie Murphy,” he explained. “Eddie was on the lot at Paramount at the time and arguably was the biggest star in the word. They had told us he was a huge Star Trek fan.”
The joy that was originally marinated in crafting their Star Trek IV work would ultimately dwindle as time passed.
“At the beginning of the process, it was actually a lot of fun. As the process progressed, it became less fun, because it became more political. And I don’t say that with any bitterness. It’s just the way things work in all businesses,” he offered. “We began to feel like at a certain point that this was going to be taken away from us, which in fact, it was.”
Murphy would end up starring in The Golden Child instead and his role was later revamped/replaced with Catherine Hicks’ Dr. Gillian Taylor. The late Leonard Nimoy commented on Murphy’s discussed Star Trek IV involvement in a 2009 interview.
“I was called by Jeff Katzenberg, who was head of the studio, when I was prepping Star Trek IV. I remember his words very specifically. He said ‘I have either the best idea in the world or the worst idea in the world, Eddie Murphy said he would kill to be in a Star Trek movie,'” recalled the film’s star/director. “And I said, “I think you are right it is either the best or worst idea in the world.” [laughs] I had several meetings with Mr. Murphy and what I said to him: “we are very flattered you want to be in a Star Trek movie, we admire you, you admire us, neither of us want to do any harm to each other, so we will work on a script. So if we could develop a script that would work we would do it, and if not we will say thank you to each other and let it go.” And that is pretty much how it went.”
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
