The directing duo of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah just dusted off an older action franchise and successfully made it relevant again, with Bad Boys for Life but even before the pair had agreed to bring life back into that franchise, they had signed to revitalize an even older franchise, Eddie Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop. And while it's been some time since we've had word on the rumored fourth entry, the directors are now confining the movie is very much moving forward.
Of course, before any movie can really move forward, it needs a script, and while it appears that Beverly Hills Cop 4 is currently without one, it is being worked on as we speak. The directors tell Digital Spy they are very much looking forward to seeing it completed. According to Adil El Arbi...
We're still involved in that project, and there's a screenwriter now on it that's going to try to write a first draft, or a first treatment at least with the story. So we're going to see what the first version will be, but we're very excited and hope that we can work with another icon like Eddie Murphy. That'd be great.
It seems that the script for Beverly Hills Cop 4 has been a tough nut to crack for years, as that was the issue back in 2015 when the project was being handled by Brett Ratner. This is obviously an entirely fresh take as the new directors haven't seen any script previously. IMDb currently lists writing duties being handled by Andre Nemec and Josh Applebaum, who previously wrote Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol as well as the most recent pair of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies.
Beverly Hills Cop 4 is currently slated to be a Netflix project and it's being produced by Jerry Bruckheimer who produced the first two installments of the franchise as well.
Beverly Hills Cop is only one Eddie Murphy franchise that is getting dusted off. Coming 2 America is a film that is currently in production and that we know we'll see down the road. Assuming that movie finds a receptive audience it will almost certainly give Beverly Hills Cop 4 a significant push, as Axel Foley is probably still Eddie Murphy's most popular big screen character to date.
And if Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah can bring back another Jerry Bruckheimer-produced franchise back into relevancy after years on the shelf, they will probably make a lot of fans very happy. Beverly Hills Cop, while not without its action, certainly isn't a franchise traditionally driven by that action in the way that the Bad Boys movies have been. Making this sequel work will require a slightly different approach.
It's been almost 10 years longer since we've seen a Beverly Hills Cop movie compared to the last Bad Boys movie. Axel Foley has certainly been through a lot more in the years since Beverly Hills Cop 3, which could potentially make the next outing that much more interesting.
