Metro (1997)

Interesting facts

• Filmed in: San Francisco and California

Metro is a 1997 American action thriller film directed by Thomas Carter, written by Randy Feldman, and produced by Roger Birnbaum. It stars Eddie Murphy, Michael Rapaport, Carmen Ejogo and Michael Wincott. The plot follows Scott Roper (Murphy), a hostage negotiator and inspector for the San Francisco Police Department who seeks revenge against a psychotic jewel thief, Michael Korda (Wincott), who murdered Roper's best friend. Metro was produced by Touchstone Pictures, Caravan Pictures and Roger Birnbaum Productions and released on January 17, 1997 by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution in the United States and grossed $74 million worldwide against a $55 million budget despite negative reviews.

Production

In February 1995, Caravan Pictures bought the script for Metro in a preemptive bid of $1 million. Eddie Murphy entered negotiations for the lead role in May 1995.

Murphy was interested in making a film that was edgier than his previous comedies while retaining some of the humor of his earlier action films. Director Thomas Carter first met Murphy on the set of The Nutty Professor, while Murphy was in makeup as Sherman Klump. Carter recalled that the two shared similar ideas about the Metro script and believed that the film would give Murphy an opportunity to display both his dramatic and comedic abilities.

Producer Roger Birnbaum said that he and Murphy agreed to play the dramatic aspects of the story seriously and allow the humor to occur naturally. According to Birnbaum, this approach made Scott Roper "perhaps the most realistic character Eddie has ever played on screen". Carter similarly said that the mixture of drama and comedy was one of the main reasons he was attracted to the project.

Murphy described Metro as the most physically demanding role he had performed at that point in his career: "This is the most physical role I've done in a movie. I tip my hat to Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis—I don't know how they can do movies like this all the time, because you really get beat up doing them. But it's great when you finally see the results up on screen. We had a lot of fun doing this."

Michael Rapaport, who had been a fan of Murphy since childhood, said that working with him fulfilled a longtime ambition. Murphy praised Rapaport as "one of the best" actors of his generation and said that working with him "brought out the best" in his own performance.

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