Celebrity break-ups are something of a guilty pleasure to look in on, and one of this years's biggest separations was that of long-term couple Jerry Bruckheimer and Walt Disney Studios. In the wake of The Lone Ranger bombing spectacularly at the box office, it was announced that Bruckheimer and Disney would be going their separate ways after 20 years in business.

Bruckheimer's Disney legacy includes the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, which has been extremely lucrative for the company so far in a trend that seems set to continue when Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is released in 2016. Bruckheimer has no doubt been highly sought-after since the announcement of his deal with Disney coming to an end, and now the producer has found a new home.

THR revealed today that Bruckheimer has reached a three-year first-look deal with Paramount Pictures, the studio which produced some of Bruckheimer's early hits like Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop. Sure enough, the first films being planned as part of the deal are another sequel to Beverly Hills Cop, which is being scripted by Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) and the Top Gun sequel starring Tom Cruise.

While it's easy to conjure up images of Bruckheimer being booted out of Disney in disgrace after The Lone Ranger cost the company around $190 million, Bruckheimer claims that he simply wanted to make different films from those he had been making at the Mouse House. It's certainly true that he had been eyeing up Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop for sequel treatment, so it's no surprise to hear that Bruckheimer has ended up back at Paramount.

Johnny Depp and producer Jerry Bruckheimer from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

The new Beverly Hills Cop movie will once again star Eddie Murphy back as leading man Axel Foley, and will be directed by Brett Ratner, according to Deadline. Paramount put the movie into development after a TV pilot based on the franchise failed to get picked up, but nonetheless left the studio feeling confident that the formula could work as on the big screen again. The movie will see Foley returning to Detroit, though it's unknown whether Brandon T. Jackson will play his son like he did in the pilot.

Top Gun 2 has been famously languishing in development hell for almost thirty years, but Bruckheimer recently said that he has never given up the dream or the intent of getting it made. It seems unlikely that the sequel will be made before Mission Impossible 5, as was claimed last year, since Mission Impossible 5 already has a release date set for Christmas 2015. However, Bruckheimer's move back to Paramount seems like the spur in the sides that the sequel needs to get moving again.

Tell us in the comments if you're happy to hear about Bruckheimer returning to these classics from his career - and what you think of the Beverly Hills Cop sequel's choice of director.

_____

Source: THR, Deadline