Arriving in movie theaters in the summer of 1988, Coming to America starred Eddie Murphy as Prince Akeem Joffer from the fictional African nation of Zamunda. Upon learning that his parents, King Jaffe (James Earl Jones) and Queen Aoleon (Madge Sinclair), had arranged for him to be married, Akeem and his aide Semmi (Arsenio Hall) embarked on a journey to find the prince a bride with whom he could connect both emotionally and intellectually. Naturally, Akeem's quest for the future queen of his nation took him to Queens, New York, and it was there that he met and fell in love with Lisa McDowell (Shari Headley).
Directed by Craig Brewer, the new sequel Coming 2 America finds Akeem and Lisa 30 years later and still happily married, now with three daughters of their own. But as Akeem takes his place as king of Zamunda, he finds himself torn between his country's traditions and what's right for his family a situation that's further complicated by the discovery that Akeem unknowingly fathered a son, Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler), who's grown up and still lives in Queens. As trouble brews with Zamunda's neighbor Nextdooria, Akeem and Semmi hatch an ill-advised plan to find Lavelle and press him into an arranged marriage that could bring peace to the region.
For the sequel, Brewer reteamed with cinematographer Joe Jody Williams following their work together on the series Empire. I was honored and ecstatic to get a chance to help shape this next chapter of the story, Williams shares. Like most people of my generation, especially Black people, I had a nostalgic connection to the first movie. It was one of the first times we saw ourselves projected in this way, as royalty. It had a profound and positive effect on us and it was funny! It was Eddie and Arsenio, and they transcended any images we had ever seen of ourselves on the big screen. The way I remembered it in my heart was that it was the most beautiful thing I had seen with Black people projected in a positive light, both women and men.
It was that feeling that the filmmakers wanted to recapture while simultaneously crafting a visual palette that would reflect Zamunda's 30 years of progress. The filmmakers chose to frame the story in large format with Panavision's Millennium DXL2 camera, which Brewer had previously employed on the Eddie Murphy-starring feature Dolemite Is My Name.
Coming 2 America would also reunite the director with Dolemite veteran Corinne Bogdanowicz, senior DI colorist at Light Iron Los Angeles. What she's brought across these two movies has been beautiful, the director says. And the facility is so amazing at Light Iron.
Corinne was awesome, Williams agrees. I hadn't worked with her before, but I loved what she did on Dolemite, and there was a lot of brown skin in that movie. I felt totally comfortable with her as the colorist.
Likewise, Brewer felt completely at ease with Williams behind the camera. Jody's technically brilliant, and he's able to bring a richness to the imagery, the director says. There were very high standards on Empire. The show needed to look like a major movie, and he was able to deliver that in a very quick and efficient way there were sometimes three music numbers on Empire per episode, and we only had eight days to shoot everything.
Along with that, Jody's just very cool, Brewer adds. Not much phases him. I don't lose my temper, I keep my cool, and Jody's the same way. When I saw the schedule and the kinds of sets and costumes we were going to have, I knew I needed Jody. We were already in that rhythm.
Williams recalls being similarly impressed by Brewer when the director began working on Empire in the show's second season. Their collaboration would continue through Season 5; over that time, Williams stepped up from A-camera operator to cinematographer. Craig had a really good energy when he came to our show, Williams says. I gravitated towards his ease on set. He's a great communicator, and he's a good listener. And I could see his connectivity to the culture not just pop culture, but African Americans. The actors responded to it, and I responded to it as an operator. We were just on the same wavelength.
Coming 2 America's 57 days of principal photography took place almost exclusively on stages and locations in Atlanta, where Williams and Brewer drew on their experiences from Empire to find convincing backdrops for Manhattan and Queens. That's all we did on Empire, shooting in Chicago and playing it for New York, the cinematographer says. Your vantage points have to be very limited there's no tilting up! But we found these nooks in downtown Atlanta where we were able to pull it off.
For example, Williams notes, when Akeem first meets Lavelle outside of Madison Square Garden, aside from a wide establishing shot of the actual venue, the rest of the scene is all practical Atlanta. Once we get into the dialogue, it's all what we shot for real on location.
The production sourced its camera and lens package through Panavision Atlanta, and Light Iron Atlanta provided dailies services. The filmmakers framed for the 2:1 aspect ratio, within which, Williams says, I wanted as many head-to-toe shots as I could do. I wanted to keep the frames as big and expansive as possible so we could see the grandeur of the beautiful costumes and palace sets.
Meanwhile, the question for costume designer Ruth E. Carter and production designer Jefferson Sage was whether they should recreate what was seen in the first film or instead evoke the wardrobe and architecture of the original while embracing materials that reflect the modern world. That was the conversation every day, Brewer recalls. What we ultimately decided was that the movie means so much to everyone, and in particular to Africa
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Arriving in movie theaters in the summer of 1988, Coming to America starred Eddie Murphy as Prince Akeem Joffer from the fictional African nation of Zamunda. Upon learning that his parents, King Jaffe (James Earl Jones) and Queen Aoleon (Madge Sinclair), had arranged for him to be married, Akeem and his aide Semmi (Arsenio Hall) embarked on a journey to find the prince a bride with whom he could connect both emotionally and intellectually. Naturally, Akeem's quest for the future queen of his nation took him to Queens, New York, and it was there that he met and fell in love with Lisa McDowell (Shari Headley).
