Eddie Murphy, whom you may remember from such recent movie premises as “I’m a workaholic spiritually connected to a tree, and with every word I say a leaf falls off and when the last leaf falls I die,” is currently shopping a Beverly Hills Cop TV series with The Shield creator Shawn Ryan. It’s said to combine entertainment execs’ two favorite things, cop shows, and “hey, remember the eighties?!”
As first reported by Vulture, the pitch is being taken to broadcast networks Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday.
Murphy, who starred in the three films as a crafty Detroit detective working in Beverly Hills, is attached to have an onscreen role in the spinoff. Murphy and Ryan would executive produce the project, which is described as an hourlong crime procedural with comedic elements. Murphy would appear in the pilot and a few episodes throughout the first season, according to Vulture.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in November, Murphy confirmed that there wouldn’t be a fourth movie in the franchise and that he was interested in telling a different story about his former alter ego.
“What I’m trying to do with Beverly Hills Cop now is produce a TV show starring Axel Foley’s son, and Axel is the chief of police now in Detroit,” he said at the time. “I’d do the pilot, show up here and there. None of the movie scripts were right; it was trying to force this 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.” [THR]
Murphy speaks here of the long-rumored Beverly Hills Cop 4, which was at one time slated to be directed by Brett Ratner, presumably without rehearsals. And now it’s going to be a network procedural with “comedic elements,” because hey, it worked so well for Knight Rider. Spin this any way you want to, but if you would’ve told me in 1984 that Eddie Murphy would still be holding onto Beverly Hills Cop almost 30 years after the fact, I would’ve… well, I would’ve pooped on myself because I was a baby. But if I was capable of reason in 1984 and you told me that Eddie Murphy was holding onto BHC like Corey Feldman holds onto Lost Boys, while Judge Reinhold was the one content to move onto other projects, I would’ve done a new Coke spit take all over your face. EDDIE F*CKING MURPHY! The second-most influential black comedian of all time! Trying to squeeze money out of something he did 30 years ago! I liked Beverly Hills Cop fine, but there were already three of them and it’s not like it wasn’t already a stock premise to begin with. My God, a fast-talking, streetwise policeman? Let’s encase this in amber to preserve it for future generations!
I’d rather see Beverly Hills Wop, about a negative Italian stereotype from the thirties who gets transported to modern-day Southern California. A nice fish-out-of-water tale. Mamma Mia! Axel-a Folini no canna understand alla these-a crazy-a people! Thee boys, they look-a like-a de girls! Who do I guanna feed-a my meat-a-balls?
