Eddie Murphy Recruits Dark Knight Star For Long Awaited Sequel
It looks like a long-awaited Eddie Murphy sequel is adding a major star to the cast and this movie is coming together.
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It’s coming up on thirty years since we last saw Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley taking his particular brand of policing to the greater Los Angeles area, but it won’t be long until it happens again. The famed comedian whose movie career began to be defined by the work he put into the original is going to be back at it sooner than later with Beverley Hills Cop: Axel Foley confirmed and heading towards production. And the movie just added another big name with Deadline reporting that Joseph Gordon-Levitt has joined the cast in a currently undisclosed role. It’s another exciting move for this film which will put Murphy into one of his signature and frankly hilarious, roles.
As of now, it isn’t clear how Joseph Gordon-Levitt works into the cast of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley alongside Eddie Murphy, but it’s obviously an excellent addition. He’s among the most talented actors working in Hollywood and it would stand to reason, based on some other roles, that he’s teaming up with Murphy’s Foley in some way for this film. Deadline also reported that Taylour Paige had joined the cast as well. She’s coming off work in Zola among other productions.
The last time we saw Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley was all the way back in 1994 with Beverly Hills Cop III. That one was seven years after the second installment and failed to live up to the first two films. It was basically Axel Foley goes to a theme park (Wonder World) and on its $50 million budget earned back only $119 million at the box office. It also bombed with critics with the movie sitting at just 9% on Rotten Tomatoes. This latest movie will be a chance to right some of the wrongs from that flop and get at least a proper send-off for a pretty iconic character all things considered. It stands to reason we get a pretty big production and the reception and audience excitement could rival what happened with Coming 2 America which saw Eddie Murphy give us another long-awaited sequel.
Because remember, back in 1984 when Eddie Murphy came out with Beverly Hills Cops, it was a sensation that capitalized on his tour de force of a performance from a guy who had been crushing it in the standup world. The movie, on just a $13 million budget made $316 million. It was one of the best returns ever considering the amount that went into it and Eddie Murphy was now a bona fide star’s star.
Eddie Murphy and a Beverly Hills Cop 4 has been at various stages of production for decades now with a bunch of different starts and stops. But with these latest castings, things are now full steam ahead for the film with Mark Molloy in the director’s chair and Jerry Bruckheimer producing. Currently, there is no set release date for the Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley though with production ramping up some of the particulars should be ironed out in due time.
