The movie Quentin Tarantino wanted to write for Eddie Murphy: “If it comes off, great”
Quentin Tarantino has collected an impressive roster of actors throughout his time in Hollywood. He is a regular collaborator of the likes of Tim Roth, Kurt Russell, Harvey Keitel, Bruce Dern, and, of course, his best buddy in the whole wide world, Samuel L Jackson. Of course, there’s also Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, who have only appeared in two Tarantino pictures each but made quite the impression in doing so.
Certain actors just fit with Tarantino’s style. Bold and brash, rough and tumble, these guys slot perfectly into the director’s world of blood, violence, and more shots of people’s feet than should be legal. One name you would never associate with him in a million years is Eddie Murphy, but that team-up was closer to happening than many might think.
Speaking to Project Casting, Murphy revealed that there was a possibility that Tarantino could have been involved in the third Beverly Hills Cop movie. “Quentin is insane but good insane,” the comedian-turned-actor said. “He came to me with an idea for another Cop, and we’ve been talking about that. If it comes off, great – he’s one crazy guy worth working with.”
Murphy brought this up in the context of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, the fourth instalment in the cherished crime comedy series. Released on Netflix 30 years after the original, the story sends Axel Foley (Murphy) back to his old stomping ground with his daughter and her ex-boyfriend in tow. He reunites with his old boss, John Taggert (John Ashton), to uncover a conspiracy that threatens the safety of his former partner.
Unfortunately, the overwhelming consensus on Axel F was that the title character should have stayed in Detroit. It didn’t get awful reviews or anything, but the prevailing feeling was that this new instalment brought little to the franchise. Murphy’s performance was well-received, as it felt way more energised than any of his other recent efforts, but that was about it. This would have been disappointing news for the star, who wanted his beloved character to go out on a high.
“The third Beverly Hills Cop was garbage,” he said, with the hope that this fourth film would right its wrongs.
Axel F was actually helmed by Mark Molloy, a former commercials director who was making his feature debut. It was initially in the hands of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, the duo behind the two recent Bad Boys reboots. Adil and Bilall left the project to instead focus on HBO Max’s upcoming Batgirl, which… well, we all know how that one ended. According to Murphy’s interview, which was conducted ahead of the film’s production, he had spoken to Tarantino about working on the project.
“There’s been talk,” he said. “Nothing solid yet.” Alas, ‘nothing solid’ would be the furthest this idea would get.
It’s pretty much impossible to imagine a world where Quentin Tarantino had anything to do with a franchise like Beverly Hills Cop. Even outside of the films he’s directed, the maverick has never been involved in anything similar to Murphy’s Hollywood adventures. He has a very specific image that he sticks to pretty religiously, based on his own cinematic taste. We may never know how close this collaboration actually got to happening, but it’s certainly fascinating to consider the minuscule possibility that it could have actually materialised.
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