Axel Foley Might Return... Maybe

This summer has shown the power of the franchise. Recent powerhouses like Pirates of the Caribbean and Spider-Man have encouraged studios to revisit older money making machines, such as this summer’s Live Free and Die Hard, which bears a striking similarity to other Bruce Willis movies the studios would rather we not mention.

It shouldn’t come as much of a shock, therefore, that studios are trying to revisit and renew just about every franchise they have their hands on. Coming Soon managed to get a bit of exclusive news from producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura about the possible resurgence of a fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie, revitalizing another decade-past franchise. The news: they are working on a take, analyzing the franchise and characters, and think they have enough information to hire a writer and start building a picture.

Not to be too sarcastic, but: Duh! This isn’t exactly breaking news. Rumors of Axel Foley’s return has been rumored since May of last year, with confirmation of the studio looking at the franchise coming hitting the trades back in November. Still, I have to admit I find it a little positive that the studio is looking at what people like about the character and building from that instead of just grinding out another formula identical to the previous pictures meshed together.

When asked if Eddie Murphy was still interested in playing the character, di Bonaventura played things a little evasively. That’s a nice answer, and it’s good to hear Murphy likes the character, but it doesn’t really answer the question. Of course, it should be pretty obvious that Murphy wants to keep working and, as long as his pictures are more Norbit than Dreamgirls, he should be interested in returning to Beverly Hills.