2008 July 03 « Entertainment Today and Beyond

Hancock’s open and Beverly Hills Cop 4?

Will Smith’s edgy Superhero movie HANCOCK got off to a very solid start at the box-office, pulling in 6.8 million in early screenings on Monday night. Many industry experts think the film could be on par with the 6 day opening of last summers Transformers which did 155.4 mil in the same time period. Hancock is playing on 3965 screens.

It’s interesting to hear what’s going on with the development of a BEVERLY HILLS COP 4. While director Bret Ratner ( Rush Hour) is reportedly in pre-production on the project, Eddie Murphy has recently said his days of making movies could be over. He claims to have a been there – done that reaction to making any future movies. The big question for me would be: can any director, writer or Murphy himself really capture the pure magic of the original? I saw that film 7 times in 1984 during its original theatrical run and consider it one of the best audience participation movies ever made. It was funny and exciting, plus it had a terrific script and Murphy was never better. My gut tells me that things will move forward and we’ll see a fourth entry in this series a little bit down the road. I just hope all involved pursue it because they have something clever up their sleeves and not just for the big payday!