That idea was apparently what first sparked Rock to the idea of doing a remake of Heaven Can Wait - itself a remake of a 1941 movie called Here Comes Mr Jordan - when he saw it a couple of years ago.

“The first thing that popped into my mind,” Rock recently told Premiere magazine’s Josh Rottenberg, “was, ‘Man, Richard Pryor should have done this! This movie would have been so much better with a black guy’. If you’re doing a fish-out-of-water movie, you’ve got to go all the way. I mean, Warren Beatty in a rich guy’s house just doesn’t seem like much of a stretch.”

Adds Rock’s long-time manager, Michael Rotenberg, who also produces: “I think Chris wanted to show the differences between looks, and how they affect people’s impressions of each other. How money affects it, how materialism affects it - all elements which, in Chris’ material, are fodder for comedy. Chris’ comedy is about truth, with a twist which makes you see the world from a different angle.”

Doing Down to Earth was part of Rock’s game plan to get himself established as a worldwide star. And he was determined to do it without having to play the inevitable smart-talking black cop. “What’s the point of another young black comedian with a gun?” declared writer Nelson George - another longtime collaborator - to Premiere. “To put Chris in that box would be ridiculous. He’s a comedian with a point of view, and that point of view is not best expressed with him carrying a gat.”

Regina King with Chris Rock

Rock was born in Carolina in 1966, but moved to Brooklyn when he was six. Bussed by a progressive education authority into a mainly white school (Gerritsen Beach High, where comedian Andrew Dice Clay went to school), he was relentlessly bullied and defended himself with humour (plus, on occasion, a knapsack full of bricks). When he left high school, Rock lied about his age and got booked in to a number of comedy clubs, ending up in New York’s Comedy Strip, where he was spotted by Eddie Murphy. The star got him some TV gigs and the small role of a parking valet in Beverly Hills Cop II, which helped launch his Hollywood career.

Rock did a stint on Saturday Night Live - which he quit after two seasons, claiming he was not getting enough sketches - and then the short-lived In Living Color, which also launched Jim Carrey. 1997 was breakthrough year for the comedian, with a Grammy-winning comedy album, a double-Emmy-winning cable special and, finally, his own TV slot, The Chris Rock Show, on HBO, which brought his edgy, confrontational, politically incorrect humour to a much wider audience. He also wrote a book, Rock This!, and got an Emmy nomination for a very different kind of comedy: political convention coverage for the cult US TV show, Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher.