Eddie Murphy is in the midst of a career renaissance. His new film Dolemite Is My Name has garnered rave reviews, he’s set to host SNL for the first time since leaving the show, and he’s currently filming the long-awaited sequel to comedy classic Coming to America. Now comes the most exciting Eddie Murphy news yet: Beverly Hills Cop 4 is officially a go.
The return of the beloved and wildly-successful action-comedy franchise had long been rumored, but concrete news of a new movie actually happening remained frustratingly elusive. That changed on Nov. 14 when it was announced that Paramount had leased the rights to Beverly Hills Cop to Netflix, which will be moving forward on the film’s financing and production. According to Variety, Netflix also has the option of producing a fifth film, should number four prove popular.
The original Beverly Hills Cop was a huge success. The movie starred Murphy as streetsmart Detroit cop Axel Foley, who became a fish out of water while investigating a case in ritzy Beverly Hills. The film was the highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office in 1984, besting hits like Ghostbusters and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. 1987’s Beverly Hills Cop II was also a success, earning around ten times its budget at the global box office. But 1993’s Beverly Hills Cop III is a different story. That movie was considered both a box office failure and a critical flop, and its poor performance effectively killed the franchise for two-and-a-half decades.
But now enough time has now passed for us all to forget about Beverly Hills Cop III so we can hope for the best in Beverly Hills Cop 4. No word yet on when the new sequel will arrive on Netflix, but you can bet there’ll be a lot of fanfare when it does.
