Beverly Hills Cop 3 Almost Sent Axel Foley To London
In a 1989 interview, Eddie Murphy said Beverly Hills Cop 2 was "probably the most successful mediocre picture in history." Murphy felt the Tony Scott movie just replicated the 1984 original but lacked the freshness. In a 2024 interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Murphy walked back his previous critique of the 1987 follow-up by stating "The first two Beverly Hills Cops are really good." However, Murphy didn't sound thrilled at the idea of making a third entry back in 1989, even though he was aware Paramount was developing one.
There were many other versions of the Sequel developed, with one from Chinatown screenwriter Robert Towne which followed Axel trying to deal with being a celebrity cop. Another outrageous concept would have paired Axel Foley with Paul Hogan's Crocodile Dundee in a bizarre franchise crossover.
London Cop Could Have Opened Up The Franchise Even More
According to a 1992 article from The L.A. Times, the biggest swerve in Beverly Hills Cop 3's development would have relocated Axel to London, where he would have teamed with a Scotland Yard detective; Sean Connery was earmarked for this part. Reportedly, there was an alternate pitch that saw Axel, Billy (Judge Reinhold) and Taggart (John Ashton) fly to London to rescue Ronny Cox's Bogomil when he's taken hostage by terrorists. It's unknown how seriously the London pitches were considered, and issues over the sequel's rising budget kept Axel rooted in Beverly Hills.
Murphy gave an interview with The Bobbie Wygant Archive in 1994 that briefly touched on the London pitch, and even revealed Japan was considered as a location too. In hindsight, it was a missed opportunity for Beverly Hills Cop 3 not to take Axel to a new locale and see how he fared. Having the fast-talking detective dealing with a totally different culture and clashing with a new set of detectives would have been a fascinating experiment.
Murphy's Hatred Of Beverly Hills Cop 3 Delayed The Fourth Movie By 30 Years
Beverly Hills Cop 3 was meant to be another huge success for Paramount, but instead, it made less than half of the second film's gross. Its underperformance also signaled that Murphy's time as the king of R-rated action comedies was drawing to a close, though he soon reinvented himself with family fare like 1998's Dr. Dolittle. Murphy has dubbed Beverly Hills Cop 3 as "garbage" and "atrocious" in the years that followed and appears to carry a genuine distaste for it. That's also why Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F took so long to arrive.
Murphy refused to sign up for another entry without a solid script in hand - a task that ended up taking close to 30 years. The fourth entry also went through many drafts, with directors like Brett Ratner and Adil & Bilall trying to get it off the ground. Thankfully, Axel F is said to be the best outing since the original, to the point that Beverly Hills Cop 5 is in early development. Hopefully, it won't take about three decades for a fifth film to happen though.
