Back in the '80s, Eddie Murphy was the top man in comedies with films such as 48 Hrs., Trading Places and Coming to America. Nowadays, he's in films like A Thousand Words (which, I'll be honest, I have heard good things about), Meet Dave, Imagine That and, Brett Ratner's latest box-office disasterpiece, Tower Heist. However, the series of films he is most identified with is, of course, the Beverly Hills Cop franchise. His performance as street wise Detroit cop Axel Foley is one of his absolute best. The first film made a little over $300 million in revenue; however, the last two films were not as well-received (II was directed by the recently deceased Tony Scott and III was directed by John Landis).
A fourth film had been in development with you-know-who (Ratner!) attached to "helm" it. However, after years of wondering if it was going to get made or not, Eddie Murphy announced the film was dead while promoting Tower Heist last year:
They’re not doing it… None of the movie scripts were right; it was trying to force the premise. If you have to force something, you shouldn’t be doing it. It was always a rehash of the old thing. It was always wrong.
He then added that we had not seen the last of Axel Foley. He's been planning a new television series that would focus on Foley's son and his misadventures in Detroit. Murphy said he could occasionally guest star as Foley, who has now become the chief of police in Detroit. Ten months later, we have new word on the series as Murphy and Shawn Ryan, creator of The Shield and showrunner of The Unit, are pitching it to broadcast networks as a "buddy cop series with strong comedic elements".
As long as Brett Ratner is nowhere near this new series, I'd be mildly interested to see how it turns out. Would Eddie Murphy's involvement in a Beverly Hills Cop series keep you tuned in?
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