Before signing on to bring the third Bad Boys movie to life, directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah were enlisted by Paramount Pictures to direct another long-gestating action-comedy cop sequel in the Eddie Murphy-headlined Beverly Hills Cop 4, and now El Arbi has offered a brief update on the status of Axel Foley’s potential return.
“We’re still involved in that project, and there’s a screenwriter now on it that’s going to try to write a first draft or a first treatment at least with the story,” said El Arbi in an interview with Digital Spy. “So we’re going to see what the first version will be, but we’re very excited and hope that we can work with another icon like Eddie Murphy. That’d be great.”
El Arbi and Fallah first became attached to Beverly Hills Cop 4 back in the summer of 2016 after impressing with their Belgian crime flick Black.
The sequel – which was initially announced way back in the mid-1990s – was picked up by Netflix in November of last year, with Murphy stating that he intends to shoot the film once he finishes up with Coming 2 America. However, if we’re still not even at the treatment stage, it may still be some time before Axel Foley is back on the beat.