Eddie Murphy has had one of the most fascinating careers of any actor in Hollywood. Since becoming one of the biggest and most bankable actors in the world back in the 1980s, his films have seen a steady drop in quality up until present day.

Box office bombs like The Adventure of Pluto Nash and throwaway films like Imagine ThatMeet Dave, and Norbit haven't done much to recapture the interest of fans of Murphy's old style of comedy, and now it seems the actor is willing to cash in on fond memories in order to regain some favor in the public eye.

At the Shrek Forever After premiere in Los Angeles, Murphy revealed to Access Hollywood that he's been working on a script for The Nutty Professor 3.

The problem is, even Murphy himself doesn't sound convinced that another sequel is a good idea. Let's play a little game called "Count the Qualifying Statements in This Quote."

"You know what? There might be another 'Nutty Professor.' We kind of wrote something that might be kind of funny. If the studios want to do it, we'll do it. If you don't see it, the studio was like, 'This isn't funny.'"

To be fair, the quote from Access Hollywood comes from a written story and not a video, so we can't actually hear the passion (or lack thereof) in Murphy's voice as he reveals this information. I know it's the popular thing to rip on Eddie Murphy these days, but he can't expect people to get excited about his work when even he can't seem to muster up enough confidence about the project to convince anyone else that it's a worthy cause.

If you've been paying attention to Hollywood news over the past five years, you're well aware that remakes and sequels are the name of the game. Since Nutty Professor 3 is technically an amalgamation of both, it's easy to see why studios might be interested in taking advantage of any good will Murphy might have left in the eyes of his fans. He isn't the bankable star he used to be, but his Nutty Professor series made a lot of money during its theatrical run; the 1996 film made $273 million worldwide, and The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps pulled in $161 million back in 2000.

I'll toss it to you, readers. Are you interested in seeing Eddie Murphy reprise his role(s) in another Nutty Professor sequel? Will this project ever see the inside of your local movie theater?

Source: Access Hollywood, via Coming Soon