Today in Bad Ideas That Just Won’t Die, Beverly Hills Cop 4. Recently, the news was that producer Jerry Bruckheimer, following his split with Disney after the flop of critics killed The Lone Ranger, is on the rebound with Paramount (meaning, sadly, that Jerry Bruckheimer will continue to make movies). Now comes word that the first project as part of the new deal will be a fourth Beverly Hills Cop, directed by everyone’s favorite shrimp-fetishist, Brett Ratner, and starring A Thousand Words actor Eddie Murphy.
Explains Deadline:
The first project under the new deal, however, will be a new Beverly Hills Cop movie — a reboot of one of Bruckheimer and Paramount’s biggest successes together when he produced the original with late partner Don Simpson. Eddie Murphy closed his deal to reprise his role as Detroit cop Axel Foley — this time Foley will be returning to his Detroit roots. It will be the fourth installment of the lucrative franchise.
Hey, Deadline, either it’s a reboot or it’s a fourth installment starring the original star, it cannot be both.
Brett Ratner, who is currently finishing up Hercules for MGM, is attached to direct the film as soon as his duties on the Dwayne Johnson-starrer finishes up. The picture bows in July. The Beverly Hills Cop script is still being worked on.
If this story sounds familiar, it’s because Brett Ratner directing Beverly Hills Cop 4 was the talk of 2008, when Ratner told MTV that the target audience would be 10 and 12-year-olds (just like my pick-up lines). Since then, there were a few drafts of a script, which Eddie Murphy supposedly didn’t like (and we all know Eddie Murphy has great taste in scripts), and the project languished (as they say), eventually evolving into a TV show, which also went nowhere. But now that they’ve got the brains behind The Lone Ranger and the talent from Tower Heist? Hey, the sky’s the limit. I kind of just want to see the making-of documentary, where Ratner and his buddy James Toback drive around Hollywood talking about how great it’s going to be and spilling food on themselves.
Oh, and get your short shorts ready, because Top Gun 2 is supposedly back on too:
Another big Bruckheimer-Simpson-Paramount hit in their sights: Bruckheimer as part of his deal will also produce the long-in-the-works Top Gun 2, which is being developed by Skydance Productions with Tom Cruise back in the cockpit to star.
We last heard about this one in 2011, and it was supposedly dead a year later. If you’ll remember, this one was going to be about the guys who fly drones remotely from Nevada, rather than fighter pilots screwing and flying and playing homoerotic volleyball out of San Diego. So if you ever wanted to see Tom Cruise manage a team of brash video gamers in the desert, this could be your movie. It actually sounds more like a sequel to Grandma’s Boy, which wouldn’t be a bad thing.