Pete Davidson and Eddie Murphy became fast friends while working on their recent movie, The Pickup, which was released on Prime Video earlier this year. Their co-star, Keke Palmer, told People that the pair got along so well that they were constantly breaking character and riffing off of each other on set. It was a dream come true for Davidson, who said that he and Murphy “were like little girls,” and that they couldn’t stop laughing during production. The two bonded over shared interests, like the movie Jaws, which they would quote to one another behind the scenes.
Another movie they discussed at one point was Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy. The 1982 thriller stars Robert De Niro as Rupert Pupkin, an aspiring comedian who obsesses over his talk show idol, Jerry Langford (played by Jerry Lewis). Frustrated with Langford’s lack of interest in him, Pupkin ends up stalking and kidnapping the late-night host in an attempt to get a spot on his show. Davidson told Entertainment Weekly that the film is one of his personal favorites, and that he thinks it’s “Martin Scorsese’s best movie and De Niro’s best performance.”
He also expressed interest in remaking the movie with Murphy. Davidson envisions himself playing De Niro’s Rupert Pupkin, and Murphy taking on the late-night host role initially played by Jerry Lewis. While he’s not sure that The King of Comedy could actually be remade, Davidson finds the idea of the two of them doing it “awesome.” For his part, Murphy’s not opposed to at least collaborating on something else with Davidson, telling EW that they “hit it off famously,” and that he would “love to work with him again.”
If a remake were to happen, it wouldn’t be the first time Davidson took on Scorsese. The Saturday Night Live star did a Raging Bull-inspired sketch on the show back in 2021 in which he plays a washed-up older version of himself, much like Robert De Niro did in the original movie. It also wouldn’t be the first time Murphy had stepped into the shoes of Jerry Lewis, having remade Lewis’s 1963 film The Nutty Professor in 1996. Whether or not the movie ever materializes remains to be seen. Still, it’s not outside the realm of possibility considering the star power involved—or the fact that Scorsese himself, like Davidson and Murphy, has also appeared on SNL, and likely wouldn’t stand in their way.
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