Last October, in a surprising wrinkle, it emerged that Eddie Murphy was effectively abandoning the attempt to revisit the Beverly Hills Cop universe on the big screen and had instead switched his focus to TV. Fast-forward, and now Murphy has partnered with The Shield creator Shawn Ryan to work up a pitch for networks.

Sony Pictures Television is backing the show in the US, but it's largely under wraps since it’s now at the crucial stage where Ryan and Murphy are shopping it to the various stateside channels.

But Murphy has said it will feature Axel Foley’s son, with Axel himself – who will appear occasionally in any eventual series – as the police chief in Detroit. Whether that’s still the case is anyone’s guess, though apparently those who have heard the pitch describe it as a blend of crime procedural and buddy cop show.

So it looks like this thing might actually go ahead. There’s no word on how involved Ryan will be in the series should it get picked up, since he also has submarine thriller series Last Resort about to launch this season. But who knows? If it gets picked up, the strains of Axel F could be coming from your TV set as early as next year…