BEVERLY HILLS COP 4 has some life to it once again.
After being pulled from Paramount's slate at the outset of last summer (the sequel was initially set up with a release date of March 25, 2016 – when BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE graced this world) due to script concerns, it appears progress is once again being made in bringing Eddie Murphy back to the big screen as Axel Foley.
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, the Belgian writer-directors behind BLACK – winner of the Toronto International Film Festival's Discovery Award last year, have been tapped to helm the long-in-development sequel after the studio, Murphy and producer Jerry Bruckheimer were impressed by their previous film and ultimately won over by the duo's love of the series. The pair will be working off a script written by writers Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec that has been tweaked and recalibrated over months to try to get to a place that satisfies everyone. It is believed the fourth film of the franchise would take Foley back to his roots in Detroit.
The plan is to head into production either by the end of the year or in early-2017. It's been over 20 years since the last time we saw Murphy wield his badge, with the much-maligned BEVERLY HILLS COP 3 landing in theaters in 1994. Hopefully the new film doesn't veer in that direction where Eddie Murphy still believes he's a Wesley Snipes-like action star. A funny Eddie Murphy is what made the first two flicks click. With any luck, that's what is waiting for everyone back in Michigan.