Wandering through the halls of development hell for roughly a decade now, the idea of a fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie has been something that Paramount, Eddie Murphy and producer Jerry Bruckheimer have been trying to put together with little success. The latest news is that, thanks to a deal between the studio and Netflix, the streaming service will be leading the charge to make the long-gestating instalment.
Netflix, of course, is already in the Murphy business thanks toDolemite Is My Name, which has been garnering awards chatter. So signing a deal for the rights to Beverly Hills Cop and putting Murphy back in prime position makes sense for them.
Originally, Brett Ratner was going to make the film, until that version fell apart. It got as far as setting an actual release date in 2016, but was pulled from the schedule when it didn't work out. There are no details yet of who beyond Murphy and Bruckheimer will be involved, but we can expect Netflix to make this a priority project in the wake of the Dolemite praise and Murphy's forthcoming return to another classic character in the Coming To America sequel.
And for an enlightening read about the earlier days of Beverly Hills Cop, check out this excerpt from Wild And Crazy Guys, by Empire's own Nick de Semlyen about the heady days of '80s comedy filmmaking.