Announced at the end of 2013, word on the developing Beverly Hills Cop 4 has been notably scarce in the months since. So it's perhaps no surprise that the Axel Foley fourquel has been pulled from the release schedules for the time being. It won't now arrive on March 25, 2016, although Eddie Murphy and Brett Ratner remain attached, respectively, to star and direct when and if the project eventually moves forward.
Industry suspicions had already been aroused when Paramount moved its big-hitter Monster Trucks to a March, 2016 release date. But while it sounds bad, Foley may also be dodging a bullet, since he won't now share his comeback slot with Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice. That's a fight he was never going to win.
Beverly Hills Cop 4 was one of the earliest announced projects to come from Jerry Bruckheimer's exit from Disney and return to his former home at Paramount. Following an abandoned attempt at a TV series (with which Bruckheimer had no involvement), it seemed like a no-brainer to place the super-producer back on the property that had given the Simpson/Bruckheimer partnership one of its earliest, biggest hits.
It seems that the screenplay has remained the sticking point, however, with nobody yet quite cracking Axel's return. Following the TV debacle and the dismal threequel in 1993, Murphy is for once exercising some quality control. "I’m not doing a Beverly Hills Cop unless they have a really incredible script," he told Rolling Stone in January. "They're trying to get it right. I’ve read a couple things that look like they can make some paper, but I’m not doing a shitty movie just to make some paper. The shit got to be right."