In Space, No One Can Hear You Yawn

By Amanda Bower

Eddie Murphy will head to the moon this month for a serious rescue mission. He must save Pluto Nash, a movie in danger of collapsing under its own inertia. Nash, a sci-fi comedy featuring Murphy as a lunar-nightclub owner, wrapped a year ago, and was originally scheduled for an April 6 release by Warner Bros.' Castle Rock division. Then it was bumped to the fall. Now it's consigned to the wintry abyss of Jan. 18. Maybe. Producer Martin Bregman (The Bone Collector), who's had Nash in development for 20 years, blames the delay on getting the special effects right, but an early screening in January made it clear that reshoots wouldn't be a bad idea. Spoiler website Ain'tItCoolNews slammed the film for "lame action and almost no laughs." Wisecracks a la Dr. Doolittle and The Nutty Professor were "nowhere to be found." Bregman says he's not worried about the $100 million project. "Not me. It's not my money." Is that supposed to be funny?

--Reported by Jess Cagle/Los Angeles

With reporting by Jess Cagle/Los Angeles