Just when you thought Eddie Murphy’s career might be taking a tentative step back in the right direction with Brett Ratner’s Tower Heist, along comes news that he is slumming it yet another low brow family film (which also happens to be produced by Ratner). It was announced this week that Murphy will be voicing the title character in the upcoming big screen adaptation of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Hong Kong Phooey. As you can probably guess, it will not be fully animated but rather another live-action / CG hybrid in the vein of Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Smurfs, and fellow Hanna-Barbera creation Yogi Bear. Alcon Entertainment founders Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove had this to say about the announcement:

“We could not be happier that Eddie Murphy will star as Phooey. There is no overstating his contributions to cinema, and to such enduring stars of family entertainments such as Shrek and Dr. Doolittle. We look forward to watching him re-imagine yet another classic character.”

Hong Kong Phooey was a fairly short-lived Saturday morning cartoon that aired from September to December of 1974. The main character is a dog who works a mild-mannered police station janitor but with mystical powers transforms into the “number one super guy”, fighting crime with the help of The Hong Kong Book Of Kung Fu and his pet cat Spot. Hong Kong Phooey was voiced by Scatman Crothers in the original cartoon.

Let’s face it, Eddie Murphy has made a ton of money voicing Donkey in all of the Shrek movies over the past decade, and if he can get more work like that, he’s going to take it. On the bright side, the movie will be directed by direct-to-video sequel master Alex Zamm (Inspector Gadget 2, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts), who also directed the classic Carrot Top film Chairman of the Board. What could go wrong?