Axel Foley Lives!
The heat is on—again.
Paramount has signed up Eddie Murphy to reprise his role as wisecracking detective Axel Foley for a fourth installment in the Beverly Hills Cop saga, the studio confirmed Thursday.
The sequel will be supervised by former Warner Bros. head turned producer Lorenzo de Bonaventura, who's currently locking down writers. No director has been named.
There's no word on a plot, although the film is expected to stick to the fish-out-water formula of the first three films, in which Murphy's ace Detroit police officer finds himself in unfamiliar territory conducting a murder investigation in the 90210.
Paramount is also hoping the sequel follows the box-office formula of the earlier films—at least the first two, which did bang-up business.
The 1984 origina, helmed by Martin Brest (Midnight Run, Meet Joe Black) and released in 1984, was a massive hit, grossing $234.7 million in the U.S. and $81 million internationally. The 1987 Tony Scott-directed sequel, Beverly Hills Cop II, fared even better, raking in $153.6 million in domestic ticket sales and another $146 million overseas.
However, 1994's Beverly Hills Cop III, tanked. The film which saw Murphy reunite with his Trading Places and Coming to America director John Landis, featured Foley taking down a counterfeit money ring operating out of a Los Angeles amusement park. But it was a yawner with moviegoers, who shelled out a meager $44 million domestically.
The third film suffered from the absence of Top Gun über-producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, who oversaw the first two movies, as well as several MIA key players (Ronny Cox, John Ashton and Paul Reiser) and the trademark '80s synthesizer score by Harold Faltermeyer.
Bruckheimer won't be involved in Beverly Hills Cop IV (his partner Don Simpson died of heart failure in 1996), but di Bonaventura told Daily Variety that he has high hopes of resurrecting a franchise that made Murphy an international star.
"Axel Foley is one of the great action-comedy characters, a character that Eddie loves. I'm lucky enough to help bring it back," the producer told the trade. "This genre is missing from the landscape."
Of course, there might be another reason for Murphy to cash a Beverly Hills Cop paycheck. He and ex-Spice Girl Melanie "Scary Spice" Brown are reportedly expecting their first child together early next year. The sequel money should keep the kid in diapers for a few months.
While Beverly Hills Cop IV takes shape, Murphy remains busier than ever. Aside from lending his voice to the character of Donkey in next year's Shrek the Third and a half-hour holiday-themed TV special, Shrek The Halls, the comic actor is set to play multiple roles in his new comedy Norbit, unspooling in February.
Before he can do that however, Murphy will show off his pipes, playing the part of chitlin circuit star James "Thunder" Early in director Bill Condon's big-screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Dreamgirls, due out Dec. 15.
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