It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Eddie Murphy’s Axel Foley, but he’s finally heading back out on patrol. And he’ll have some new partners to join him — Kevin Bacon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Taylour Paige are joining the cast of the upcoming fourth film in the series, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley. There’s no word yet on who the trio will be playing, but one thing’s for sure: Axel’s back. And he’s bringing along a few old friends: In addition to Gordon-Levitt and Paige, original cast members Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser and Bronson Pinchot are returning to the franchise.
The original Beverly Hills Cop is an action comedy touchstone and one of Murphy’s defining star vehicles; the 1984 flick grossed more than $300 million worldwide and was nominated for an Academy Award for best original screenplay. Through two sequels, Murphy remained the series’ driving force — without his quick wit and quicker trigger finger, where would Beverly Hills Cop be?
Still, it’s taken quite a while for a fourth film to get off the ground. It went through multiple iterations — at one point, Murphy was even meant to cameo in a television series that would star Foley’s son instead. What happened there? Well, as Murphy puts it, “The pilot was really good. It tested where they have these knobs [that you] turn if you like it. And whenever I came on the screen, Axel Foley would come on the screen, they turned it so they literally broke the knobs on the thing. It was like, ‘Damn, they breaking knobs?’”
No need to break knobs for this one: As the title might suggest, Murphy is front and center in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley. The film is now in production, directed by Mark Molloy with a screenplay by Will Beall (Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Aquaman).
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley is coming to Netflix soon.
