A screenplay by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (Wanted, 3:10 to Yuma) appears to have turned up as the Leaked Script of the Month selection for December, getting its first coverage by readers at Latino Review. "The studio loves the draft but Eddie Murphy is not too keen on it," the site reports, but for the sake of argument we'll just imagine Murphy going along with it because, well, that's what he does. The film (working title: Beverly Hills Cop 2009) features Axel Foley returning to California after his ex-partner Billy Rosewood turns up dead in an apparent suicide. Except Axel knows better, and he will get to the hilarious bottom of it. Or something:

[Axel's] new partner is Goodwin, a fat rookie with low self-esteem who has a crush on a lady cop in the facial recognition department. When he's not solving the mystery of who tossed Billy out the window, Axel is playing matchmaker with these two. He's also teaching Goodwin how to be a better cop. It's like the Axel Foley Finishing School. [...]

It turns out that Billy was learning about a group of corrupt LAPD officers who were involved with gun running with a Beverly Hills rich kid who has ties to the military. The mystery isn't that big a deal, and Axel mostly gets from place to place by half-assedly conning people. He makes up a fake story about who he is and then doesn't follow through on it. It's like Brandt and Haas saw the first BHC and just didn't have the energy to write anything that matched up to it.

Let's not be that hard on them, though: Fulfilling this franchise legacy 15 years after the fact is an utterly thankless task, despite the deep well of romcom subplots made available by advances in facial-recognition technology. Rocket launchers and fistfights are thrown in as well, but those aren't aren't quite as funny; perhaps this calls for the old fourth-installment standard of vodka tie-ins and thorny-orb ball thwackings. People love ball thwackings.

• Exclusive: 'Beverly Hills Cop IV' Story Details!! [Latino Review via Cinematical]

Sylvester: The way I see it, these characters don't even belong to us anymore. You're just the physical conduit through which these stories need to be told.
Eddie: But does the world really need me sticking more bananas up tailpipes?
Sylvester: Fuck the world!
Steven: Look, Eddie. Don't overthink it. Just make sure the script is in great sha—JESUS CHRIST! Who does a two-time Oscar-winning director have to blow to get a charge called around here?

[Photo Credit: AFP/Getty Images]

• Previously: Seven Reasons Why 'Beverly Hills Cop 4' is a Better Idea Than it Sounds [Defamer]

1. Murphy's on-set meltdown when Ratner accidentally calls him "Chris."

2. Paramount can keep its coin. Unlike its distribution deals struck with Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm for its recent blockbusters Iron Man and Indiana Jones 4 (Dreamworks will be long gone by then), Paramount has 100% of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise to itself. Which is important, because early tracking hints this film will gross around $3,260.

3. Bronson Pinchot's inevitable holdout for more money to reprise his role as the gay, pronunciation-challenged art dealer Serge.

4. The unique apocalyptic ring to the words, "Beverly Hills Cop 4: A Film by Brett Ratner."

5. Harold Faltermeyer, a/k/a the Michael Bay of soundtrack composers, can finally have his career back.

6. We don't have to feel quite as bad about our morning drinking habit.

7. The Cannes premiere.

• Eddie Murphy Back in 'Beverly Hills' [Variety]