Hollywood star Eddie Murphy to star in ‘Tower Heist’

Los Angeles: Eddie Murphy will star opposite Ben Stiller and Alan Alda in ‘Tower Heist,’ a comedy being directed by Brett Ratner. In a story ripped from recent financial headlines, the overworked manager (Stiller) of a posh high-rise residence leads a team of the building`s operations and maintenance workers on an intricately choreographed heist targeting its penthouse tenant, a Wall Street capitalist (Alda) who defrauded the rank-and-file staff of their pensions.

Murphy, who is also executive producing the Universal Pictures feature, is playing a safe-cracking thug who may or may not betray Stiller and his gang. The project has gone through several incarnations in its long road to the screen, including one that involved a predominantly black cast that included Murphy and Chris Rock. The latest ‘Tower’ script is Jeff Nathanson`s rewrite of a screenplay by Ted Griffin. Murphy`s recent movies have included ‘Imagine That,’ ‘Meet Dave’ and ‘Norbit.’ Bureau Report