It would seem you can’t keep a good Cop down – one of the most famous being the Beverly Hills variety. There were three comedy-action films in that franchise (released 1984, 1987 and 1994 respectively) that starred Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley, a wise-cracking detective who found himself transplanted to LA and shaking up the local force. The films made a star out of Murphy and arguably remain his greatest screen outings. A fourth film has been touted in various forms over the last fifteen years but had never got the traction needed. There was also a pilot shot in 2013 for an attempted television series which was to focus on Foley’s son (and in which Murphy cameo’d in the premiere), but it never went to series and Paramount failed to find another fit.
However Foley will now be returning to the beat, this time in a deal Netflix.
The subscription platform and Paramount have struck a one-time licensing deal for another outing which would include the option for another sequel should everything go to plan. This is the latest successful deal for Netflix, which has been able to entice some major names for projects that debut on the service (including Murphy himself starring in the critically-acclaimed Dolemite is my Name ) and also provides an alternative solution to some of the recent reboots that haven’t seen the theatrical returns for which the studios hoped.
There are no details as yet as to whether any other familiar faces from the franchise will return, though Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (who have been attached to the project since the last incarnation of the script in 2016 and helmed the upcoming Bad Boys for Life) are slated to direct and Jerry Bruckheimer will return as an executive-producer and it would be expected the film would lens next year for a late 2020 or early 2021 release.
