There’s no script, no budget and no confirmed Charles Grodin to complement the “buddy” part of the “buddy comedy” formula that worked so well 24 years ago, but that’s not stopping the zeitgeist from panicking over the current state of Midnight Run 2. To wit, Brett Ratner is now linked up as the director. Like we’ve never heard that before. Everybody calm down!
Not that it doesn’t get somewhat worse, as Mike Fleming reports at Deadline:
The studio and [De Niro's production company] Tribeca put the wheels in motion on the sequel early last year, when they hired Tim Dowling to write a draft. [David] Elliot & [Paul] Lovett, who were writers on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and are working on the sequel to Four Brothers (which they also scripted) will continue the storyline of Walsh, the ex-Chicago cop who, when last seen, set free the turncoat mob accountant The Duke at LAX and walked away with a wad of cash he’d use to open a coffee shop.
So, yeah: Still early. Anyway, to recap, De Niro played bounty hunter Walsh and Grodin played Jonathan “The Duke” Mardukas in the 1988 film, which was written with such profane, caustic fervor by George Gallo and directed by Martin Brest in his follow-up to Beverly Hills Cop. All of which raises a few questions: Would the retired Grodin reprise his role? (He’s said he’s open to it, but he’s also 77 next month and doesn’t exactly need the paycheck.) What is it with Ratner wanting sequels to Brest classics? (If it’s not Beverly Hills Cop 4, then it’s Midnight Run 2. Just give him Son of Gigli already and let’s be done with it!) And can Elliot and Lovett find a…
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“Even with all the Norbit-level garbage he’s been in, all the shit that he’s done to hurt his career (like when he stormed out of the Academy Awards after not winning the Best Supporting Actor award in 2007), I still root for Eddie Murphy, hoping he’ll return to the glory days of Beverly Hills Cop and Trading Places and Delirious, the same way I still listen to every Weezer album, hoping they’ll record one more song as good as ‘Jamie.’” Totally fair. Will you settle for Beverly Hills Cop 4? [SplitSider]
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Rumors abound today that Eddie Murphy may dig out of his extended rut with an Oscar-hosting stint next February. The Web site that broke the story says it’s a done deal, while our sister site Deadline reports that co-producer Brett Ratner has a few hurdles to clear at the Academy (quite possibly including his producing colleague Don Mischer). Among them: Convincingly answering the question, “What on Earth is the upside of Eddie Murphy hosting the Oscars?”
Aside from the publicity bump for Tower Heist — the Ratner/Murphy/Ben Stiller collaboration opening in November — and the legitimizing milestone the job would represent for the 50-year-old comic/actor’s flagging career, I can’t really see how this would make sense. Let’s think about the players:
· Brett Ratner: Wants to make his mark on the event as soon and as indelibly as possible. Eager to make the Oscars funnier, but needs to keep it safe and traditional after this year’s debacle. Wants to be the guy known as bringing Eddie Murphy back from his devastating tandem of live-action flops (Meet Dave, Imagine That) with a hit movie and the return to the stage he left decades ago, but will probably just look like the guy exploiting the Oscars for Tower Heist hype and to reinvigorate his long quest to make Beverly Hills Cop 4 with Murphy. Can always point to Murphy’s Best Supporting Actor nomination in 2007 (for Dreamgirls) as proof of his Academy approval. Can cite positive working relationship with Murphy — something not all that many of Murphy’s more recent directors can claim — as insurance against the surly star going off the rails in the intense lead-up to Oscar…
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