The long-in-development sequel to Beverly Hills Cop has a new director. Via The Wrap, newcomer Mark Molloy is replacing Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah on Netflix‘s Beverly Hills Cop 4. Eddie Murphy will reprise his iconic role as Axel Foley.
Murphy starred in the original Beverly Hills Cop when it came out in 1984. In the first film, Axel Foley was a cop from Detroit who went to the west coast (and out of his jurisdiction) to find a killer. Detectives Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton) were assigned to escort Foley out of Beverly Hills, but they ended up teaming with Foley to solve the crime. Two sequels were made, Beverly Hills Cop 2 in 1987 and Beverly Hills Cop 3 in 1994.
While the feature films were released theatrically by Paramount, the movie studio sold the rights to produce Beverly Hills Cop 4 to Netflix in 2019. That deal included an option for an additional sequel as well. Bad Boys For Life directors Arbi and Fallah were initially attached to helm the film. The duo recently wrapped Batgirl for HBO Max. Their replacement, Molloy, has never previously directed a feature film. Beverly Hills Cop 4 will be Molloy’s directorial debut.
The fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie almost never happened at all. In 2013, CBS attempted to revive the Beverly Hills Cop franchise as a weekly TV series produced by The Shield creator Shawn Ryan. Brandon T. Jackson was slated to headline the series as the son of Axel Foley, with Murphy reprising his role for the pilot episode. While the pilot was filmed, CBS decided against placing a series order. Shortly thereafter, Paramount restarted development for Beverly Hills Cop 4.
Murphy recently revisited another one of his classic franchises in Coming 2 America for Amazon Prime Video. Netflix hasn’t revealed when Beverly Hills Cop 4 will begin shooting, but the project has earned a tax credit from the state of California that ensures it will be filmed there.
