The film was released in 2016, directed by Bruce Beresford and written by Susan McMartin. The plot was inspired by the short story she wrote, “The cook who came to live with us”. Just like in the film, Henry Church had a mysterious past, but he helped the writer make all her dreams come true and she really saw him as a father.
Susan said in an interview with Forbes at the time of the release that as Church died before her daughter was born, she wanted the child to know who this important man was and began writing the story.
As she is a producer well known for her works such as ‘Californication’ and ‘Two and Half Man’, she took the script to the studios and wanted Samuel L Jackson to be the protagonist. But it was only in 2014, after the project had been shelved for 5 years, that Eddie Murphy became interested and the work went to the big screen.
Despite the moving story, the film was not very well received by the public or by specialized critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the production has just 24% approval, based on 33 reviews on the site.