UPDATE 11/13/2002 – Originally said to be in negotations about 2 weeks ago, it looks like Brandon T. Jackson is now set to star, as Deadline is now reporting. Props to Humor Mill for getting the story first, 2 weeks ago.
Here's the original October 25th story:
He was one of the 5 actors on Natasha's short list of potentials to star in the CBS-ordered Beverly Hills Cop TV series adaptation (read that post HERE); and now our friends at Humor Mill, who've broken past Eddie Murphy (and other black comedy entertainment) news, are reporting that Brandon T. Jackson is in final negotiations to star as Axel Foley's (Eddie Murphy's) son in the upcoming pilot/series.
It was last October when we reported that Eddie Murphy had pretty much buried the idea of a 4th Beverly Hills Cop movie, when he told Rolling Stone magazine in an interview that "none of the movie scripts were right; it was trying to force the premise. If you have to force something, you shouldn't be doing it. It was always a rehash of the old thing. It was always wrong."
In that same conversation, Eddie did add that, while a movie was highly unlikely, a TV show was a possibility, stating "what I'm trying to do now is produce a TV show starring Axel Foley's son, and Axel is the chief of police now in Detroit. I'd do the pilot, show up here and there…"
Skip ahead some 10 months later when it was officially announced that Murphy had teamed up with Shawn Ryan (creator of The Shield, The Last Resort) and Sony Pictures Television, to produce a small screen version of the film franchise, as a serial, and that the idea was being pitched to a number of TV networks.
After some serious competition from all 4 major networks for the series, CBS emerged the winner of this new Beverly Hills Cop series.
CBS reportedly committed to a pilot episode, with Shawn Ryan as showrunner on the potential series.
It was soon confirmed that it'll be "a buddy cop show… an hourlong crime procedural with strong comedic elements," and that Eddie would appear in the pilot and maybe a few special episodes during the first season; but he wouldn't be the star.
Further… the series will have a similar fish-out-of-water setup to the film, and will center on Axel Foley’s son, Aaron, a blue-collar police officer, trying to make a name for himself, absent of his prominent father's influence, and the criminals among the rich and famous in Beverly Hills he helps eliminate.
Shawn Ryan will write the pilot episode script, and will executive produce with Marney Hochman and Eddie Murphy.
As Natasha noted, regadring Brandon T. Jackson… he started out as a comedian and still makes appearances at clubs and colleges. After graduating from high school he moved to los angeles and eventually opened for Chris Tucker and Wayne Brady. While best known for his role as Alpa-Chino in the 2008 comedy hit Tropic Thunder he has been in quite a few films; Lottery Ticket, Roll Bounce, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and most recently, Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son.
Meanwhile, the 3 films in the Beverly Hills Cop film franchise (which started out strong, but got successively worse) grossed over $735 million worldwide, and the first film was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 1985. It was also Murphy's first full-fledged starring vehicle.
