Bowfinger (film)

Bowfinger
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Frank Oz
Produced by	Brian Grazer
Written by	Steve Martin
Starring	Steve Martin Eddie Murphy Heather Graham Christine Baranski Terence Stamp
Music by	David Newman
Cinematography	Ueli Steiger
Edited by	Rick Pearson
Production company	Imagine Entertainment
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	August 13, 1999 (1999-08-13)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$55 million
Box office	$98.6 million

Bowfinger is a 1999 American satirical comedy film directed by Frank Oz. It depicts a down-and-out filmmaker in Hollywood attempting to make a film on a small budget with a star who does not know that he is in the film. It was written by Steve Martin, who also stars alongside Eddie Murphy in two roles, and Heather Graham as a vapid, ambitious starlet. The film was released on August 13, 1999 and grossed $98 million.

Z-grade film producer Bobby Bowfinger has saved up to direct a movie for his entire life — he now has $2,184 to pay for production costs. He has a script ("Chubby Rain") penned by an accountant, Afrim, and a camera operator, Dave, with access to studio-owned equipment. Bowfinger then lines up several actors who are hungry for work, along with a crowd of undocumented Mexican immigrants for a camera crew; the only other thing he needs is access to a studio in order to distribute his masterwork.

He extracts a promise from a film studio executive, Jerry Renfro, that the executive will distribute the film if it includes currently-hot action star Kit Ramsey. Ramsey — a rather pompous, neurotic, and paranoid actor — refuses, so Bowfinger constructs a plan to covertly film all of Ramsey's scenes without his knowledge. The actors, told that Ramsey is method acting and will not be interacting with them outside of their scenes, walk up to Ramsey in public and recite their lines while hidden cameras catch Ramsey's confused reactions.

The plan goes well at first: Ramsey (who is a member of a Scientology-like organization called MindHead) swallows the movie's alien invasion premise and believes he is genuinely being stalked by aliens, resulting in an exceptionally genuine and intense performance. However, the strain on his already-precarious mental state leads him to go into hiding in order to maintain his sanity. This puts a hold on the film production.