COMMENTARY | Eddie Murphy, who returns to the role of bad boy criminal in the upcoming “Tower Heist,” recently ruminated about the “Beverly Hills Cop” franchise that made him famous. Apparently there will be no fourth film. A TV series is a possibility.
The idea is that Murphy’s character Axel Foley will now be chief of the Detroit Police Department and would have a recurring role. Axel Foley the Younger would be the rule-breaking, smart-talking detective with an unorthodox approach to solving crimes.
The idea of “Beverly Hills Cop the Series” has certain possibilities, even with the language and violence toned down for the small screen. This is especially true given the current realities of Detroit, where a falling population and continuing economic malaise is causing parts of the urban landscape to be given back to a state of nature. Axel the Second could be like a cop in a Roman city of the late 5th Century AD.
On the other hand, what made at least the first two movies work (the third was kind of lame) was Murphy’s own comic sense of timing and his utter air of self-confidence. He was also able to play off the white-bread characters played by Judge Reinhold and John Ashton with a resulting chemistry that made for the best comedy/action movies of the 1980s.
The other thing that worked in the movies was the fish out of water theme, of the tough, urban cop from Detroit operating in the laid back environs of Southern California. A “Beverly Hills Cop” series set in Detroit would lack that element and would be in danger of being just another cop action show, indistinguishable from a hundred or so others.
It might be better, to give some unsolicited creative advice, to give Axel the Younger a wider area to operate. He could become an FBI agent working out of the Beverly Hills office, having been raised in Detroit and mentored by his dad, who is now a retired detective and a consultant for action movies and TV shows. That scenario would also bring in Rosewood and Taggart (or perhaps their progeny) for adventures in 21st-century crime fighting.
“Beverly Hills Fed” anyone?
Source: Eddie Murphy Wants to Develop Beverly Hills Cop TV Series, Coming Soon, Oct 26, 2011