Beverly Hills Cop 4: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah to direct sequel

The Beverly Hills Cop franchise is back on the beat.

EW can confirm that the Belgian filmmaking duo of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are attached to direct the long-gestating fourth installment of the action-comedy series starring Eddie Murphy as a streetwise Detroit cop battling bad guys in the Southland.

El Arbi and Fallah, who are based in Brussels and of Moroccan heritage, gained notice at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall when they premiered Black, a gritty drama about a 15-year-old girl who falls for a member of a rival gang. The film won the festival’s inaugural Discovery award.

Paramount Pictures, meanwhile, has been trying to get a fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie off the ground for several years. (The first three films were released in 1984, 1987, and 1994.) At one point Brett Ratner was to direct Murphy, working from a script by Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec (Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol), but that incarnation didn’t pan out.

Murphy has said in past interviews that nailing the script is a priority. “I’m not doing a Beverly Hills Cop unless they have a really incredible script,” he told Rolling Stone last year. “I’ve read a couple things that look like they can make some paper. But I’m not doing a s‑‑‑‑y movie just to make some paper. The s‑‑‑ got to be right.”

Deadline first reported the news about El Arbi and Fallah.