It may be desperation on the part of Eddie Murphy. But I don’t care. It’s certainly not because the 80’s legend is hurting for work and money. There are always nightmarish kid’s flicks and uninspired animated choices for the man who made Billy Ray Valentine, Axel Foley, and Reggie Hammond seminal movie characters that will endure forever. Eddie Murphy doesn’t need us.
But it has to sting a little knowing that he hasn’t really delivered on all that promise (Dreamgirls notwithstanding) in a very long time. It has to sting, if he has any integrity left.
Word is per The Hollywood Reporter that Eddie Murphy is thinking of bringing Axel Foley to television via a Beverly Hills Cop television show. Not as the lead character but as the police chief father of the lead character. It’d be interesting to see how age has mellowed out the once conniving and rule-breaking Foley and who they cast as his son. Surely it’d be a situation where the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree and now Axel realizes what a nuisance he was.
Or whatever. I don’t care. Axel’s a great character and two mediocre sequels haven’t dulled the magic. Especially if John Ashton, Judge Reinhold, Bronson Pinchot, and Lisa Eilbacher show up. It’s not like those fuckers don’t need the work.
Beverly Hills Cop is an absolute classic. Still. And it helped lay the foundation for the amazing Jonathan Banks’ gritty and enduring Hollywood ride.
The best part is that Murphy will be teaming with The Shield‘s Shawn Ryan. Ryan knows TV and coupled with a still bona fide movie star and a great franchise this has the potential to be special. If a network picks it up. Minor detail that.
More as it happens.