Brett Ratner & Eddie Murphy on BEVERLY HILLS COP IV

by Matt Holmes

What was I saying yesterday about Brett Ratner being a studio favourite director for franchise movies? He's done it again, that damn son of a gun. Variety say Ratner is in talks with Paramount Pictures to direct the returning Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop 4. The movie is thought to have a mid-2009 start date, for a tentpole release in 2010.

Jerry Bruckheimer who produced the original trilogy will not be back this time, instead it's going to be Paramount's number 1 action producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. This fourth movie came about when Murphy approached Paramount during working on NowhereLand for the studio. After talks with several directors, Ratner was chosen and it's the second deal that has brought the actor/director combo together after news of The Incredible Shrinking Man being made into a film. It's been 14 years since the last movie in the $700 million series opened but Murphy is not an old guy of course, instead it's his attitude and his career choices that have turned us off him... Murphy is not the same actor he use to be. Then there's "The Rat" factor. We have seen what he can do with buddy comedies in the Rush Hour movies and quite frankly we don't like it.
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Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.