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''Comeback?'' sneers Eddie Murphy, when asked the inevitable question about the importance of Boomerang, his first film since the 1990 sequel Another 48 HRS.

''Comeback? From where? Where am I coming back from? What does that mean, comeback? Am I viewed as this cat who used to be funny and isn't anymore and this is my last shot to be funny? If I was perceived that way, no one would tell me.''

Maybe that's the problem.

Wearing a black Thierry Mugler jacket and black Ray-Ban sunglasses, Eddie Murphy sits at a grand piano in an elegant lower Manhattan loft, improvising one smooth pop-jazz tune after another. All around him technicians hurry to set up the next shot, part of the Thanksgiving dinner scene that's a turning point in Boomerang. Production assistants fuss over pots of potatoes and chitlins in the kitchen, gaffers rearrange the lights that are trained on the beautifully set wood table, but no one approaches the star.

Nearby, 30-year-old director Reginald Hudlin sits opening the mail from his office in the Tribeca Film Center. A slender man who has a close-cut beard and wears earphones around his neck, Hudlin holds up a yellow envelope from a sweepstakes company that screams URGENT! OPEN WITHIN 24 HOURS!

''I might have won,'' he laughs, and rips it open.

He hadn't, but he didn't seem to care. Ever since Reginald and his older brother/producer Warrington were tapped by Murphy to make Boomerang, they've felt like they won the lottery. Their only previous film, 1990's lighthearted teenage romp House Party, was made for just $2.5 million. But when it grossed over $26 million, it caught the attention of the major studios, which were quick to green-light the recent series of black-oriented movies like New Jack City, Boyz N the Hood, and Juice.

Boomerang represents the next phase in the growth of black filmmaking. Its $40 million budget makes it one of the biggest movies ever made by a black director. ''We're doing some of the best s---,'' says Murphy. ''So they have to start paying for it.'' The story of a playboy executive (Murphy) who meets his match in his seductive boss (Robin Givens), Boomerang presents a broader range of black characters than is usually seen on screen, from a mailroom messenger to the president of an international corporation. The nearly all-black cast combines ''old-guard'' stars like Geoffrey Holder and Eartha Kitt with ''new jacks'' like Halle Berry and Martin Lawrence.

And Murphy was ready for a project he could believe in. Though his recent films The Golden Child, Harlem Nights, and Another 48 HRS.made over $60 million each, they fell short of the critical and commercial success that marked his earlier hits. With Boomerang, Murphy hoped to succeed in a sophisticated romantic comedy that would be a showcase for black talent. Despite Reginald Hudlin's inexperience with big-budget filmmaking, pairing the world's biggest black star with one of the brightest hopes of the black new wave on such a landmark project seemed the right thing to do.


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