It’s hard to grasp exactly what’s going on with the planned Beverly Hills Cop 4, and that’s not just because any movie starring Eddie Murphy seems like a bad idea these days. On the “good news” side of things, Brett Ratner dispelled rumors over the weekend by confirming that the fourth movie would be “a hard core R” for Latino Review. That refuted some rumors that it would be PG, to which Ratner replied, “Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet.” Except this! You can believe this, I promise!

So, OK, we’re good to go! Or, well, maybe not. Eddie Murphy was feeling a little loose-lipped around the TV gossip show Extra, and said of Beverly Hills Cop 4, “The movie wasn't ready to be done." He also admitted in essentially the same breath that he did Beverly Hills Cop 3 entirely for the paycheck, so does he really mean his salary wasn’t good enough for this one? Murphy seemed a little down in the dumps about his acting career in general, actually. He suggested to Extra that he would rather go back to the stand-up circuit than continuing in Hollywood: “I have close to fifty movies and it's like, why am I in the movies? I've done that part now. I'll go back to the stage and do standup."

I’m sure there are some people who are saying “Good riddance!” to the man who gave us The Klumps and Norbit, but Murphy sounds pretty down in the dumps at what has been a pretty low point in his career. But does that really mean he’ll turn down the guaranteed payday of starring in Beverly Hills Cop 4, which could give him a chance to revive his career by reminding us of one of his most iconic character?

Most importantly, how mad do you think Ratner is that his intended star is going around talking about how the movie isn’t going to be any good? I’m imagining some frantic phone calls going on to make sure that Ratner isn’t just talking nonsense about a movie that will never exist. And now that we know the movie will be rated R, it’s something to look forward to. Come on, Eddie! Do it for us!