Alcon Entertainment is developing a live-action/animated adaptation of the 1970’s Hanna-Barbera cartoon Hong Kong Phooey, and Mr. Eddie Murphy has been tapped to voice the lead character. If you’re unfamiliar with the series, it centered on a dog named Penry who is granted the ability to walk, talk and do kung fu after stumbling into a mystic ceremony that grants him powers. Penry works as a janitor at a police station by day, but patrols the streets at night as Hong Kong Phooey in his “Phooeymobile” with the ever-handy “Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu” manual at his side.

Say what you will about Murphy’s career as of late, but he always delivers great voice work. His fast-talking Donkey was one of the highlights of the Shrek series, and he was memorable as the dragon Mushu in Disney’s Mulan. Alex Zamm (Tooth Fairy 2) is directing Phooey, which presumably will feature an animated title character interacting with live-action actors. Family Guy executive producer David Goodman wrote the script, and Alcon co-founders and co-CEO’s Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove will produce alongside Jay Stern and Brett Ratner. Hit the jump to read the full press release.

Last year I got to speak to producer Jay Stern on the set of his latest comedy, Horrible Bosses.  Directed by Seth Gordon (Four Christmases, The King of Kong) the movie centers on three hapless employees (played by Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis) who conspire to kill each other’s horrible bosses (played by Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, and Jennifer Aniston). And based on what I saw on set, the film looks very funny and I think audiences are going to love it.

During an intimate roundtable interview, Stern talked about how the project got made, the great cast, how much screen time each of the bosses gets, the tone, the freedom of knowing it’ll be rated R, Colin Farrell’s comb-over, why they wanted Gordon to direct, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to the conversation.