Beverly Hills Cop IV ‘A Huge Priority’ For Paramount

This past weekend, Brett Ratner gave hope to fans of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise while speaking at an Advertising Week event focused on “consumer attention in a media-saturated world.”

While discussing how to one can organically integrate brands into films, Ratner nonchalantly noted that Beverly Hills Cop IV is “a huge priority for Paramount.”

How does Beverly Hills Cop come up during a speech on organic brand integration? Well, Ratner used Beverly Hills Cop as an example for his theory on product placement. He stated that in the film, Axel (Eddie Murphy) will need to drive a car (spoilers! :sarcasm:) and that currently the standard process would be to make a deal with an automaker to use their car(s) and then making them fit into the film. (cough – Transformers – cough)

Alternatively, Ratner’s focus will be, “What are my needs for the story? What car do I need that can become a character in the movie?” Only after the appropriate vehicle is chosen will they then approach the corresponding automaker.

Whilst I extremely doubt that whatever car is eventually chosen for Axel in Beverly Hills Cop IV will achieve the same fame as Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters, or the Delorean from Back to the Future in the eyes of the audience, I have to admit that Ratner’s philosophy holds merit. Although, he then goes on to talk about how a pop bottle must “be a character in a story” or the audience will block it out as just another prop. Still, he’s coming from a good place.

While I wouldn’t consider myself a fan of Ratner, I’m not completely dissuaded by his involvement in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise. I long for the return of days of old in which Eddie Murphy was regarded as a comedy icon and not the voice of Donkey who makes horrible direct-to-DVD movies in between Shrek sequels. If Ratner is the man to help this happen… than so be it.

My only caveat… Judge Reinhold has to be in Beverly Hills Cop IV and not die (as in previous versions of the script).

Is Beverly Hills Cop IV as much of a priority to you as it is to Paramount? Can Eddie Murphy ever truly return to his comedy roots or our we stuck with “Daddy Day Murphy?”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter [via: The Playlist]