Beverly Hills Cop IV Wars, and 5 Other Stories You'll Be Talking About Today

Happy Thursday! Also in this edition of The Broadsheet: A Farrelly-sanctioned Dumb and Dumber sequel gets moving (slightly)... Signs point to Still Seas for Guillermo del Toro... The only defense of Shame's NC-17 that you'll need... John Carpenter's first student film discovered... and more.

· As noted in Wednesday's Buzz Break, Eddie Murphy himself has put the kibosh to Brett Ratner's dream project Beverly Hills Cop IV, arguing that the scripts were never right but that a TV spinoff featuring Axel Foley's son -- with occasional cameos by Murphy as the titular detective -- could be in the offing. No, no, no, no, said Ratner: "I think [the movie will be made] one day, I'm hoping, because it is one of the most iconic characters ever. Eddie does not go anywhere in the world where they're not like, 'Axel Foley, what's up?' more than 'Eddie Murphy.' It is something that our hope and desire is to get it made." Fine: Let's just do the 84th Academy Awards, hosted by Axel Foley for maximum international reach. Everyone wins, and we can stop talking about this goddamned movie that nobody but Brett Ratner wants. [MTV]

· The Farrelly Brothers have planted the seed for a real follow-up to their Jim Carrey/Jeff Daniels classic Dumb and Dumber -- and that's the good news. The not-so-good (or at least not-so-encouraging) news? They're not writing it. Those duties have gone to Sean Anders and John Morris, the team behind the upcoming Adam Sandler effort I Hate You Dad. If ever a trade report called for one of those :-/ emoticons, this might be the one. [Deadline]

· Thanks to the ever-reliable Hollywood domain-registry trawl, word is that Guillermo del Toro and Warner Bros. have settled on Still Seas as the title of the filmmaker's forthcoming creature flick; the project once known as Pacific Rim has gone by both titles throughout its early stages. [Fusible]

· "That's 26 total in 21 years. That's not a functional adult rating. That's playing the lottery." Looping in Shame's box-office interests and cultural stakes, David Poland hits the NC-17 nail on the head. Must read! [The Hot Blog/MCN]

· John Carpenter's 1968 student film Captain Voyeur has been discovered in the USC archives. Apparently a thriller in the mold of Halloween, it's being restored and will no doubt be publicly embarrassing the horror maven in no time at all. [THR]

· In the grand tradition of Awards-Season Trading Cards, how about Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy cards? Collect all 18! Or... not. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

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