You probably want to cut the kinda racist French caricature while you’re at it. Just cast someone like Liam Niesson and give him an American accent and a name like, oh, Frank Drebben.
Frank Drebin, but other than that quibble I agree completely.
That’s not my dog.
I agree they would have to change the set up, as Eddie is not a good ‘bumbler’. But that was the crux of the movies. If you leave that out, why not just invent a new character?
Where did the name Pink Panther come from anyway?
The Party springs to mind.
IMHO, he did some of his best work on radio (as a member of The Goons).
I’ll happily be wrong, but man….this movie could be the headline of a newspaper about movies I don’t care about at all.
It was the name of the diamond that was stolen in the first film.
The name carries on though it has no connection to any of the other films. Not unlike “The Thin Man” who was not Nick Charles, but the missing scientist in the first Thin Man film.
What did the Pink Panther say when he stepped on an ant?
Dead ant, dead ant, dead ant dead ant dead ant dead ant dead aaaaaaaant…
Was there a blue aardvark nearby?
Loooved that show. Didn’t he do a Dean Martin-esq voice? “Hey, yant”
Gotcha, thanks.
The ant talked like Dean-o (IIRC).
The best part about the PP movies was they spawned the Pink Panther cartoons. And the Pink Panther Show
get up get out
get ready to shout
cuz everyone should know
that in this world that’s why
it’s with panther-ly pride
we bring to you the panther show
~~
P-I-N-K P-A-N-T-H-E-R
(and the aardvark too!)
One fall Saturday morning my mom and dad and I were picking corn. At 9:30 I “made” my mom let me go back to watch the Panther. I was spoiled. 
Me too - and the delightful theme tune:
Plus some of the funniest dialoge ever e.g. Does your dog bite?
Steve Martin? Hell, Alan Arkin played Clouseau in one film and the best review he could get was something like, “you might not think this was quite as bad if you had never seen Peter Sellers.”
A zimmer?
Maybe we’ll get lucky. It will be animated, and Murphy will be the voice of the Pink Panther.
Summary
Who was completely silent in 99.99% of the cartoons. And all of the good ones.
Ted Wass also got a crack at it, from Blake Edwards himself who was hoping to revitalize his franchise. (It was 1983 and Sellers had died three years before.) Wass got the “clumsy” part down but his role wasn’t written to showcase what made Sellers’ Clouseau so vivid: his ridiculous self-importance.
Steve Martin made a stab at that but I don’t think he quite made it. (I haven’t seen the Arkin version).
I have my doubts about Eddie Murphy being up to it. But if they start re-casting Clouseau at the same rate that Batman and Superman get recast—an accelerating pace that implies we’ll be seeing new ones each month, soon—then Murphy’s reputational damage will be short-lived.
I’m sure he had the talent 30 years ago but I don’t recall seeing Eddie Murphy in anything this century that I enjoyed. Besides Shrek that is.
Is the Pink Panther franchise just another Star Wars? One or two good movies and a ton of crap?
The Pink Panther, A Shot in the Dark, Return of the Pink Panther, and The Pink Panther Strikes Again are all solid comedies. All Peter Sellers and Blake Edwards.
… out of 11 films.
Maybe they should reboot the cartoon instead, in a “3d” solid model cgi style. Or LEGO. Or make a live action version. Tom Hiddleston as the panther. And have the animated Inspector in the credits.
Don’t say sí, say oui.
Wicked burn, man!