Eddie Murphy in Rolling Stone: No More Kid Films, A Beverly Hills Cop TV Show?
Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy is quashing any hopes of a Beverly Hills Cop IV, but says a TV version of the popular 1980s comedy franchise is in the works.
"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," Murphy, who played mischievous cop Axel in the original films, tells Rolling Stone. "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."
Also not on Murphy's future film docket? Family movies. After years of starring in kid-friendly fare like Haunted Mansion and Daddy Day Care, the 50-year-old actor feels his days of playing to the PG crowd are behind him. "I don't have any interest in that right now. There's really no blueprint, but I'm trying to do some edgy stuff. And I only want to do what I really want to do, otherwise I'm content to sit here and play my guitar all day," he says. "I always tell people now that I'm a semiretired gentleman of leisure, and occasionally I'll go do some work to break the boredom up."
Eddie Murphy to host the Oscars
Instead, Murphy says he's contemplated returning to stand-up after a more than 20-year hiatus. "If I ever get back onstage, I'm going to have a really great show for you all. An hour and a half of stand-up and about 40 minutes of my sh---y band," he says. "But I haven't done it since I was 27, so why f--- with it? But that's just weighing both sides. It comes up too much for me to not do it again. It's like, when it hits me, I'll do it, eventually."
Although he remaisn unsure of whether he will actually return to stand-up, Murphy will get some great practice when he hosts the 84th Academy Awards next year. Murphy is excited for the gig if only to prove he's not upset over losing the 2006 Best Supporting Actor Academy Award to Alan Arkin. Reports at the time said Murphy stormed out of the ceremony shortly after his name wasn't called. "What happened was after I lost, I'm just chilling, and I was sitting next to Beyoncé's pops, and he leans over and grabs me and is like, [solemn voice] 'There will be other times.' And then you feel [Steven] Spielberg on your shoulder going, 'It's all right, man.' Then Clint Eastwood walks by: 'Hey, guy . . . ' So I was like, 'It's not going to be this night!,'" he says. "I didn't have sour grapes at all. That's another reason I wanted to host the show — to show them that I'm down with it."
Murphy can next be seen Tower Heist, which hits theaters on Friday, Nov. 4.