Another You

Another You is a 1991 American comedy film directed by Maurice Phillips and starring Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder, Mercedes Ruehl, Vanessa Williams and Kevin Pollak. The film was released in the United States on July 26, 1991.

Plot
George (Gene Wilder), a former mental patient and pathological liar, is released from the hospital. He is quickly, purposefully mistaken for millionaire brewery heir Abe Fielding by a troupe of actors hired by Rupert Dibbs (Stephen Lang), an unscrupulous business manager. Rupert needs George to believe he is Fielding in order to kill him off and inherit the Fielding Brewery and family fortune.

Eddie Dash (Richard Pryor), a con man, tenuously befriends George due to a community service assignment. He attempts at first to capitalize on George's mistaken identity, but after being pressured by Rupert into killing George for profit, turns the tables on Rupert and helps George fake his death, only to come back to the land of the living and inheriting both the brewery and the Fielding fortune instead.

Along the way, Eddie and George turn two of Rupert's female associates into allies and partners, while getting themselves into plenty of comical chaos.

Cast

 * Richard Pryor as Eddie Dash
 * Gene Wilder as George
 * Mercedes Ruehl as Elaine
 * Stephen Lang as Rupert Dibbs
 * Vanessa Williams as Gloria
 * Vincent Schiavelli as Dentist
 * Craig Richard Nelson as Walt
 * Kevin Pollak as Phil

Production
The film was released four years after Pryor revealed that he had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and his physical deterioration is evident in this film.

Peter Bogdanovich was the original director, but he was replaced after five weeks of shooting in New York. The film was shot instead in Los Angeles. None of Bogdanovich's footage was used.

Pryor later said he "got personally and professionally on that film. They fired the director and hired another ego. I was told I wasn't going to have to reshoot scenes but the new ego had me do it anyway. That's when I discovered things weren't going well for me professionally."

Reception
Another You was a box office failure. It ranks among the top ten widely released films for having the biggest second weekend drop at the box office, dropping 78.1% from $1,537,965 to $334,836. The film currently has an 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 15 reviews.

Stephen Holden of The New York Times called the film "a frantically incoherent comedy" with a screenplay that "jabbers along in ways that even Mr. Wilder, who carries the brunt of the dialogue, cannot make amusing. Mr. Pryor's role is paltry and his dialogue scant. When all else fails, he is reduced to repeating obscenities." Joseph McBride of Variety wrote that "producer Ziggy Steinberg's feeble script is given slapdash direction by the man who replaced Peter Bogdanovich on what is billed 'a film by Maurice Phillips' (the best joke in the film) ... Though Pryor shows old flashes of his old comic brilliance and charm, it's painful to see how his health problems have affected him in this role." Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Producer-writer Ziggy Steinberg's script is like a stone tied around the movie's neck that sinks it, despite all those gaudy, glossy balloons pulling it up." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film half of one star out of four, calling it a "completely worthless comedy" with "no laughs."