Shawn Ryan's "Beverly Hills Cop" television series, which had everyone buzzing a week ago, has landed at CBS, according to Deadline. The network, which we're pretty sure is almost exclusively for people's elderly uncles, has given it a pilot commitment. The new series will follow the exploits of Aaron Foley, the son of Axel Foley, the Eddie Murphy character from the three successful Paramount movies. Murphy will produce and co-star in the pilot, with a possibility for future appearances should the show be ordered to series.
Murphy pitched to all four networks last week, and CBS was the highest bidder. The series had been percolating for about a year, after attempts to revive the franchise for the big screen (under the direction of Brett Ratner) fell apart. The complicated deal for the television show was engineered by agency WME, which reps both Ryan and Murphy, in order for Murphy to produce through his deal at Sony TV (the characters are property of Paramount, which will instead own part of the series).
Ryan is a prolific and well-respected figure in television. In early gigs on "Nash Bridges" and "Angel," Ryan worked under genuine television godheads Carlton Cuse and Joss Whedon, respectively, and he went on to create one of the most beloved cult series of all time, FX's cop drama "The Shield." Since then he served as a showrunner on David Mamet's "The Unit" (for CBS), worked for a season on Fox's troubled "Lie to Me" and created a short-lived Fox series called "The Chicago Code" (which ran from February to May of last year). This season, Ryan has a brand new show on ABC that sounds totally nuts and awesome, called "The Last Resort," about a nuclear submarine that goes rogue and washes ashore on a desert island. Bonkers.
One of the most beloved series Ryan has been a part of (and one of the most unfairly overlooked) was "Terriers," a ramshackle detective series created by Ted Griffin for FX that was equal parts "Chinatown" and "The Big Lebowski." Staggeringly brilliant in almost every regard, the series was totally atypical and, thanks to a botched marketing campaign by FX, quickly canceled. It hasn't even ever been released on DVD or Blu-ray, although you can buy individual episodes through Amazon's iTunes-style store.
But Ryan isn't letting the series die that easily. Recently he told TBI Vision (via Uproxx) that he plans on using Kickstarter, the crowd-sourced fund-generator, to film a two-hour TV movie that can properly conclude the series (it ended on a pretty sizable cliffhanger). "I’ve had friends who’ve raised money for indie movies through Kickstarter and I started to think that if you wanted to make a 2 hour movie that capped off that series, how would it cost to make it and would there be a way to raise the money via a combination of Netflix and Kickstarter," Ryan told TBI about the potential reboot.
Of course, he later admitted on Twitter (via AV Club) that this is probably incredibly unlikely. "Not to throw cold water on folks, but reports of 'Terriers' movie revival are incredibly premature and would be very difficult to pull off," Ryan said. He later added: "Would I like 'Terriers' movie revival to happen? Of course. Will I look into it? Yes. Are obstacles immense? Yes. Appreciate show love though. Just want to be honest with fans so you don't get your hopes up unnecessarily." Ah! The high highs and the low lows of being a "Terriers" fan.
Regardless, the "Beverly Hills Cop" pilot, which Ryan will write and produce, will probably go forward for next year's pilot season, with a potential series starting next fall. This could be really cool. Or totally pointless. We'll find out soon enough.
