Paramount is resurrecting another past his prime franchise character. I suppose we have Stallone and his rehashes of Rocky and Rambo to thank for this trend, though no one seemed to noticed it until Indiana Jones did it. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is making Paramount money hand over fist, and they want more like it, so they’re bringing back Beverly Hills Cop.

Variety says Eddie Murphy will return as Detroit detective Axel Foley in the franchise’s fourth movie. They’re shooting for a 2010 release date and Brett Ratner is supposed to be in talks to direct it. Ratner seems to be in talks to direct just about every movie that nobody with any sense would want him within a lightyear of. Here’s another franchise for him to ruin. Assuming of course, that it wasn’t already ruined after Beverly Hills Cop 3.

The interesting thing here is that it was Eddie Murphy who approached Paramount about reviving this thing. This isn’t a case of Paramount pushing for a sequel and then talking Eddie into it. I guess he’s getting as sick of doing crummy family movies as we are of watching them. Reviving it might even be fun, assuming they come up with a decent script and the deal with Ratner falls through.