“Beverly Hills Cop” franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer still hasn't seen the panned 3rd movie

"I said to Jerry, 'I haven’t seen Beverly Hills Cop III.' And he was like, 'I didn’t do it, so you don’t need to see it,'" says "Axel F" director Mark Molloy.

Jerry Bruckheimer has never seen the panned Beverly Hills Cop III.

Nor has Mark Molloy, the director behind the newest and fourth installment, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (out now on Netflix). The filmmaker, who included a sly nod to the third film's box office bomb in his new iteration, shared the tidbit about the franchise producer in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

"There’s been so much history with this franchise, but I never actually saw Beverly Hills Cop III," Molloy said. "I’ve never seen it, and Jerry hasn’t either. When I came in, I said to Jerry, 'I haven’t seen Beverly Hills Cop III.' And he was like, 'I didn’t do it, so you don’t need to see it.' And I was like, 'OK, cool, Jerry. I’m going to let it go then.'"

Related: Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F director says Eddie Murphy improvised 'the funniest moments'

Bruckheimer, who produced the first 1984 film and its 1987 sequel, didn't return for the third film, which saw Eddie Murphy's Axel Foley return to Beverly Hills after he learns that the death of his Detroit boss, Inspector Douglas Todd (Gil Hill), has ties to an amusement park in the area. It was largely panned by critics, opening with $42 million worldwide. (By comparison, the first film opened with $234 million.)

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

The third film, released in 1994, is largely hailed as the weakest of the films, with Murphy himself calling it "garbage." Axel F pokes fun at the ill-fated threequel in the form of franchise newcomer Joseph Gordon-Levitt, playing a Beverly Hills PD cop, going through Axel's case file and calling 1994 "not your finest hour."

Related: Kevin Bacon calls working with Eddie Murphy on Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F a 'bucket list' moment

Molloy said Murphy fully embraced that throwaway line. "I’ve heard what Eddie has said about it. I even talked about it with a few of the other actors that were in it, and I just thought it would be a really fun little moment for the franchise fans where we wink back at ourselves," he said. "I’m not going to take the full responsibility for [the line], but I was very involved."

Original franchise stars Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot reprise their roles alongside Murphy in the fourth film, which has sat atop Netflix's Top 10 Movies since it debuted July 3. Axel F follows Murphy's title character as he returns to Beverly Hills to help uncover a conspiracy after his estranged attorney daughter (Taylour Paige) is targeted and threatened for taking on a case. Kevin Bacon and Luis Guzman also star.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.