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‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’ Director Drew on Franchise Iconography — and ‘80s Action Filmmaking — for His Next-Generation Sequel: ‘We Wrecked a Million Cars’
‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’ director Mark Molloy discusses how he drew upon franchise iconography for his action-comedy sequel.
First released in 1984, Martin Brest’s “Beverly Hills Cop” was one of the defining movies of its decade, and a huge stepping stone (along with “48 Hrs.” and “Trading Places”) toward stardom for Eddie Murphy. After beginning his career as a director of commercials for brands like Nike, Google and Apple, Molloy makes his feature debut with “Axel F,” which drew heavily from the first two “Beverly Hills Cop” films while pushing forward the story of its eponymous detective, now father to an equally-driven but estranged daughter (played by “Zola” breakout Taylour Paige). I said to Jerry, “I’ve never seen Beverly Hills Cop III.” He said, “Don’t worry about it.” But what I loved was not just the legacy, but the inspiration points that [directors] Marty [Brest] and Tony [Scott] gave me to jump off from.
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