Beverly Hills Cop 4 is still in the works, confirms Brett Ratner, describing the role of Axel Foley as Eddie Murphy's "Darth Vader" and "Clark Kent"...
Now here’s a project that we thought had been quietly forgotten about by all concerned.
Once upon a time, it was revealed that Eddie Murphy and Brett Ratner were to join forces to make a fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie. Given that the third Beverly Hills Cop film appears to have been disowned by all concerned, and given that Murphy’s box office pulling power isn’t, er, what it was, it all seemed a long shot at best.
Yet that would overlook the Hollywood trend for digging up older franchises and bringing along a fresh instalment over a decade after the last. Thus, Beverly Hills Cop 4 appeared to be gaining some traction at some point, and work was understood to have begun on putting a story together. And Ratner reportedly came aboard.
From a purely commercial perspective, you'd have to say that's a wise move, too. For Brett Ratner is the man who’s steered the Rush Hour trilogy of action comedies to box office gold, pretty much out of nothing. Thus, there's some logic to him putting together Beverly Hills Cop 4.
It’s just the thought of the film itself isn’t very pleasant.
Ratner, for all his box office success, has never really won much fan affection for his work. And Murphy? If there was a chance we could get performances of the quality that he was turning in across the 1980s, then that’d be great. Yet it’s not just us, surely, who fears those days are long gone.
The point of all of the jabbering is the news that Murphy and Ratner are indeed still working on a new Beverly Hills Cop 4. The director himself confirmed the news to MTV,
“I am all over it”, Ratner said of the project.
He then went on to talk about Murphy’s thoughts on the new film.
"He's sensitive about it. He made two great ones. The third one didn't really work. It's an important film for him. It's a character that's iconic. I don't think he goes anywhere in the world where someone — they're not going, 'Yo, Eddie Murphy,' they're like, 'Yo, Axel Foley!'”
Ratner went on to describe Axel Foley to Murphy as “his Clark Kent. His Darth Vader. His albatross”
Murphy and Ratner are currently working on a comedy by the name of Tower Heist, which is shooting at the moment. Could Beverly Hills Cop 4 be their next project? We’ll no doubt find out in due course…
MTV
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