While once much talked about, possibly-Brett Ratner-directed "Beverly Hills Cop 4" is, for all intents and purposes, dead. However Axel Foley is still kicking around and is now headed to the small screen. "What I'm trying to do now is produce a TV show starring Axel Foley's son, and Axel is the chief of police now in Detroit. I'd do the pilot, show up here and there," Eddie Murphy said about the TV concept last fall, and indeed, things are rolling right along as networks are now taking a hard look at the show.
Deadline reports that Murphy and "The Shield" creator Shawn Ryan are currently shopping the show, with ABC and Fox getting the pitch yesterday, and NBC and CBS taking meetings today. And basically, the concept is exactly as it's described above, except with one small change — Foley Jr. is a Detroit cop who is relocated to Los Angeles, and apparently, it "is envisioned as a sequel to the hit movie franchise." The show will be a hour-long procedural (yawn) with comedic elements, so we'd guess not unlike "Bones" or "Castle."
At this point, the rate of diminished returns from Murphy is so high, we just sort of don't care either way about this. It will probably be pretty terrible, and being on network TV, the comedy will only be able to go so far, and basically, we can only imagine it will be watered down to be like any other show of its ilk. Except it will be based on a property people recognize and have Murphy pop up time to time, which we guess is a unique selling factor. And good luck to whoever will have to follow in the character's motor-mouthed shoes. But at the very least, perhaps this will make cops-in-sweatpants a thing again.
