Thirty years ago, acid-tongued comedian and Saturday Night Live veteran Eddie Murphy (Tower Heist) proved his prowess as a cinematic leading man in Beverly Hills Cop. Though he had already shown those chops in previous roles, Beverly Hills Cop provided Murphy with a hit large enough to buoy a promising career and a pair of (increasingly dire) sequels.
These days, Murphy is known largely for the gross-out comedies and family-friendly fare of his more recent career. Nonetheless, the enduring popularity of Beverly Hills Cop – not to mention its motor-mouthed detective hero, Axel Foley – has led to many years of work on and speculation around another sequel to the franchise.
At long last, it looks as if that speculation can be put to rest. Recent reports confirm that producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean) has helped push Beverly Hills Cop 4 into the release pipeline, setting it to debut in the spring of 2016.
Deadline reports that Beverly Hills Cop 4 will premiere in theaters on March 25th, 2016. Murphy is set to reprise his role from the original films, with Brett Ratner (Hercules) overseeing from the director’s chair. Screenwriters Josh Appelbaum (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) and Andre Nemec (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) will provide a script.
For the uninitiated, the Beverly Hills Cop series follows Axel Foley, a Detroit police detective who follows a lead in a major case out to the eponymous California enclave. Foley’s acerbic manner and loose approach to the rules ruffle the feathers of the effete cops of Beverly, but his keen instincts prove invaluable in solving the case (as well as the cases presented in the film’s sequels).
While nothing solid is known about the current iteration of Beverly Hills Cop 4, the announcement mentions that the movie will take Foley back ” … to his Detroit roots.” Does this mean that the “Beverly Hills” portion of the title will be less than literal? More importantly, will the movie’s screenplay incorporate elements from the now-moribund television adaptation – including Axel Foley’s grown son?
Only one thing is certain: We at Screen Rant advise our readers to gird themselves for 2016’s inevitably ubiquitous cover/remix of “Axel F.”
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Beverly Hills Cop 4 will amble into theaters on March 25th, 2016.
Sources: Deadline
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