K.T Simpson
The long-gestating “Beverly Hills Cop 4” looks to have moved into fourth gear.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, California’s Film & TV tax credit program is offering breaks to 23 new movies – with the Jerry Bruckheimer/Netflix-produced sequels one of the standout beneficiaries.
A one-time licensing deal between Netflix and Paramount, “Cop 4” is set to snare $78 million in qualified spending in the state of California.
While out promoting “Coming 2 America” last year, Murphy seemed confident he’d be reprising the smart-arse Detroit cop next.
“Right now, they are writing a script. They are getting a script together”, the ageless comic legend told Digital Spy. “We don’t have a start date, but we have directors and we have producers – and we have writers working on it. Axel Foley is ready to go. All we need is a script.
“As soon as the script comes together, I’m doing the movie – but I’m not doing it until the script is right. Right now, there’s a piece of a script but that’s it. But we’ve been trying to do Beverly Hills Cop 4 for over 10 years and this is the closest we’ve got to it,” he continued.
“We have directors who are smart and ready to go – and we have great ideas. It also looks like we’ve got the original producer who produced the original Beverly Hills Cop – Jerry Bruckheimer – involved again too. He’s actually the person who brought these two directors to the movie. I feel like we’re on the right track now. We’re nearly there.”
The movie will be directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, helmers of “Bad Boys for Life”. Murphy seems to be a fan of the recent Will Smith/Martin Lawrence sequel.
“They cracked it out of the park”, said Murphy.
There have been numerous attempts to get a “Beverly Hills Cop 4” going over the years; an earlier incarnation, by Derek Haas and Michael Brandt, had Axel Foley investigating the murder of Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold).
Explaining his decision to kill off Reinhold’s character in his script, co-writer Haas told Moviehole a few years ago : “you have to focus on the protagonist and set up a conflict based on or suggested by the first movie. You don’t sacrifice character just for bigger action or more special effects. You always start with character and say, “what does he want at the beginning of the film?” Then just tell a great story that doesn’t snub what came before it but builds on it.’’
Other projects shooting in California include Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon”, also at Netlix, and a reboot of “White Men Can’t Jump”.
