News of a 4th film was first confirmed in July of 2013 when it was announced that Murphy would reprise his role as Axel Foley. And a year later, in 2014, Paramount Pictures, in a 3-year deal the studio signed with super producer Jerry Bruckheimer, set a March 25, 2016 release date for the 4th film, which I thought was an odd date to release it. I would’ve pegged it for a summer debut, not a late-winter/early-spring release. But I’m sure Paramount had its reasons.

That date was then pushed back, as the star of the film, Eddie Murphy, shared in an interview with Playboy, published February 10 of this year, in which he said: "I don’t think it’s gonna happen in March, but it is gonna be in Detroit. And before it happens, they’ve got to get that script right. That movie has to be right. The third ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ was garbage. Those movies, when I travel overseas, people say [in a foreign accent] “Hey, Beverly Hills Cop! Axel Foley!” They call me that shit. All the movies I’ve done, and they call me that. If we do that movie, it has to be right. Not just thrown together to get a big check. I don’t need anymore of those."

Yeah Eddie, neither do we! That said, I’m glad he recognizes the awfulness that was "Beverly Hills Cop 3," easily the worst film in the franchise – one that started out strong, but got successively worse, grossing over $735 million worldwide, with the first film nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 1985. It was also Murphy’s first full-fledged starring vehicle.

You might remember that, in late 2012, Murphy had pretty much buried the idea of a 4th 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, he was more interested in adapting the movie to TV, as a drama series – a series that’s no longer.  In the Playboy interview, he had this to say about that: "I was gonna be in the pilot, and they thought I should be recurring. I’m not gonna do ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ on TV. I remember when they tested it – they had this little knob that you turn if you like it or you don’t like it. So when Axel shows up in the pilot, some people turned the knob so much, they broke it. So the network decided “if he isn’t recurring, then this isn’t gonna happen.” 

I love getting the behind-the-scenes stories on these failed projects. All we knew about it when it was announced that CBS had passed on it, was just that the network had decided not to pick it up as a full series. So now we know what really derailed it.

When asked whether the pilot that was audience-tested ever aired, Murphy said: "I don’t know. I just remember seeing it in the editing room. I remember this executive, when we were doing some promo stuff; he came in and said “Hey, can you do ‘the laugh’ [mimicks his own laugh] and then say ‘I’m back?’” I said, “That’s a horrible idea. They’ll think I’ve lost my mind! Eddie Murphy done gone crazy. He’s done that stupid laugh again and said he’s back.”"

Hilarious! He’s right! That would’ve been really tacky – a bad idea that I’m glad Eddie realized as well.

The pilot never did air, as far as I know anyway. But I hope CBS puts it online some day, so that the rest of us can take a look at what could’ve been.

Assuming "Beverly Hills Cop 4" does eventually go into production, after Eddie is pleased with the script, and Paramount puts it back on its schedule, it will be directed by Brett Ratner, who last directed Eddie in 2011’s "Tower Heist."

Plot details on the 4th film are not yet public. All we know is that the story will be set in Detroit – maybe in a bid to help stimulate the economy in that ailing city. I won’t be surprised if the decay is worked into the storyline some how.