- Di 4. Sep 2012, 21:44
#1147752
'Beverly Hills Cop' TV Series Reboot Is A Go! Finds Home At CBS; Pilot Episode Ordered
It was last October when we reported that Eddie Murphy had pretty much buried the idea of a 4th Beverly Hills Cop movie, when he told Rolling Stone magazine in an interview that "none of the movie scripts were right; it was trying to force the premise. If you have to force something, you shouldn't be doing it. It was always a rehash of the old thing. It was always wrong."
In that same conversation, Eddie did add that, while a movie was highly unlikely, a TV show was a possibility, stating "what I'm trying to do now is produce a TV show starring Axel Foley's son, and Axel is the chief of police now in Detroit. I'd do the pilot, show up here and there..."
Skip ahead some 10 months later to a New York magazine/Vulture report last month, stating that the idea for a Beverly Hills Cop TV series is now a definite reality.
The report said that Murphy had teamed up with Shawn Ryan (creator of The Shield, as well as the upcoming The Last Resort) and Sony Pictures Television, to produce a small screen version of the film franchise, as a serial, and that the idea was being pitched to a number of TV networks this very afternoon.
Vulture was able to confirm that it'll be "a buddy cop show... an hourlong crime procedural with strong comedic elements," and that Eddie would appear in the pilot and maybe a few special episodes during the first season; but he wouldn't be the star.
And as I noted in last month's post, given the parties involved, notably Eddie, Shawn Ryan, the Beverly Hills Cop franchise itself, I didn't think this would be a hard sell to networks. I imagined that one of them would be willing to take a chance on whatever these guys were selling.
And it looks like one of them has!
After some serious competition from all 4 major networks for the series, CBS has emerged the winner of this new Beverly Hills Cop series.
CBS has reportedly committed to a pilot episode, with Shawn Ryan as showrunner on the potential series.
The series will have a similar fish-out-of-water setup to the film, and will center on Axel Foley’s son, Aaron, a blue-collar police officer, trying to make a name for himself, absent of his prominent father's influence, and the criminals among the rich and famous in Beverly Hills he helps eliminate.
As noted, Murphy will play Axel, the father, but only in the pilot episode; although there's the possibility that he'll be seen again, if CBS orders a full series.
Shawn Ryan will write the pilot episode script, and will executive produce with Marney Hochman and Eddie Murphy.
No cast hints, or expected dates.
The 3 films in the film franchise (which started out strong, but got successively worse) grossed over $735 million worldwide, and the first film was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 1985. It was also Murphy's first full-fledged starring vehicle.
