This past weekend, I got to speak with Eddie Murphy at the press day for TOWER HEIST. For a guy who’s done plenty of interviews over the years, there are few celebrities left I’d get nervous or excited about. Eddie Murphy was definitely one of those guys. We had a pretty interesting chat where we talk about “Saturday Night Live,” the Oscars, his return to stand-up and more but we’ll get into that next week when the video goes live.
What we didn’t have time to talk was the once-proposed fourth BEVERLY HILLS COP film (which, interestingly enough, TOWER HEIST’s Brett Ratner was attached to direct) but Murphy did talk about COP 4 with Rolling Stone and revealed the film is dead. “They’re not doing it,” he says explaining, “None of the movie scripts were right; it was trying to force the premise.” But that doesn’t mean the franchise is dead.
Murphy has plans to keep Axel Foley and the BEVERLY HILLS COP franchise alive through a TV show. Explains the actor, “What I’m trying to do now is produce a TV show starring Axel Foley’s son, and Axel is the chief of police now in Detroit. I’d do the pilot, show up here and there.”
Huh. This is not Murphy’s first attempt at producing a TV series that he would occasionally appear in. In the mid-80s he produced a pilot called “What’s Alan Watching?” about a teenage couch potato (a pre-“Parker Lewis Can’t Lose” Corin Nemec) who watches TV. The idea was that Murphy would show up as a variety of character on the fictitious shows on Alan’s TV. (The show wasn’t picked up.)
I’m not sure the idea of a BEVERLY HILLS COP TV series isn’t “forcing the premise” as Murphy describes the attempts to make a new movie. It almost seems like forcing it even more. What do you think? Should Eddie just let the franchise die?
The comment section exists to allow readers to discuss the article constructively and respectfully, focused on the topic at hand.
What’s Not Allowed