Late last week you might have missed the news that the “Beverly Hills Cop” TV pilot wasn’t picked up — despite it testing apparently very, very well — but that the gears were turning once again on a new movie, thanks to the response to the TV show. This is no mere idle chatter, as Paramount are once again turning the gears on what we presume will be “Beverly Hills Cop 4,” and they’ve rounded up the star and some writers to making it happen.
Yes, at 52 years old, Eddie Murphy will still be working the beat as he’s now attached to the new “Beverly Hills Cop” movie, which will get a fresh script from Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec, the dudes behind “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” and uh, the new “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie. No word yet on the actual plot, but we can only imagine this will be some kind of baton-passing thing to make sure the brand is viable for a whole new generation of movies to exploit the intellectual property.
While we generally don’t really care about this project — it’s been nearly 20 years since “Beverly Hills Cop III,” and we’ve moved on — we will say that it’s probably the most worthwhile thing Murphy has been involved with for years, outside of “Tower Heist.” Speaking of which, right around the press tours for that movie, Brett Ratner was talking a big game about working with Murphy on more projects, including another adventure with Axel Foley. “Eddie and I are even setting up some more of his ideas. I’m hoping that we have a long, fruitful relationship. We’re both still very young, believe it or not. Eddie’s only 50 years old, so I think we have a little bit of time to come up with a great ‘Beverly Hills Cop.'” he told Collider. Maybe someone will give him a ring?
Either way, we’ll see if this ever happens or just like the previously promised “Beverly Hills Cop 4,” ends up stuck in development hell for another couple of decades. [Deadline]