After trying to get a small screen version of "Beverly Hills Cop" off the ground for almost a year, Eddie Murphy lands the franchise at CBS.
Murphy and Shawn Ryan ("Terriers," "The Unit") will executive produce the pilot with Ryan in place as show runner on the potential series, according to Deadline.
The Sony TV-produced project will follow Axel Foley's son Aaron, who, just like his dad in the movies, is a blue-collar police officer working cases in Beverly Hills. Murphy will reprise his role as Foley and may recur if the pilot goes to series. The role of Aaron has yet to be cast.
Murphy teamed up with Ryan (both are signed with the WME agency) for the small screen version when plans for a fourth "Beverly Hills Cop" movie were scrapped. Deadline also reports that Paramount Pictures, which produced the movies, will own a piece of the potential series.
The pilot will mark Ryan's return to CBS where he was behind "The Unit." It's also a return to his comedy roots: Ryan started in half-hour comedy on "Nash Bridges." For Murphy, it's a change of direction following the dismal performance of his 2012 big screen outing, "A Thousand Words," which had an opening weekend haul of just over $6 million and an international gross to date of only $20 million. "A Thousand Words" had a production budget listed at $40 million according to Box Office Mojo.
The reboot-with-a-twist premise of TV's "Beverly Hills Cop" follows on the heels of Vince Vaughn's announcement that he is producing an updated version of "The Brady Bunch" in which a grown Bobby Brady, with children of his own, gets remarried to a woman who also has kids.
A broadcast date has not been set for "Beverly Hills Cop."
