Actor and standup Chris Rock’s new film Top Five premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend to rave reviews, and according to THR, Paramount is already in exclusive talks to buy it for as much as $13 million. In an interview with Indiewire, Rock described the film as a look at a famous comedian – “kind of [an] Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Chris Tucker artist type guy” – who “has been running away from what he actually does well. It happens with a lot of comedians. It happens with everybody in art, even in sports sometimes. We take for granted the things we do well. You feel a need to stretch your wings, but it’s not always the best idea.”
The film centers on Rock’s comedian character, who stars in a big drama that opens the same weekend of his wedding to his reality show-famous fiancée, and also stars Rosario Dawson, Gabrielle Union, Tracy Morgan, Cedric the Entertainer, J.B. Smoove, Sherri Shepherd, Anders Holm, Romany Malco, Leslie Jones, Michael Che, and Jay Pharoah with cameos from Adam Sandler, Jerry Seinfeld, and Kevin Hart. Rock credited Louie, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The Larry Sanders Show as inspirations for the movie as well as his own frustrations watching talented comedians abandon their comedy careers for more dramatic fare: “I’m not going to name names. But I’ve been like, ‘can you just be funny!?’ I’ve actually screamed that at the TV screen.”
