Stallone should have been Beverly Hills’ cop instead of Eddie Murphy

Director Martin Brest recounts the genesis of the cult comedy of 1984.

The career of Martin Brest stopped net 20 years ago after Gigli (Troubled loves In VF), the film that allowed Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez to meet and which remains one of the worst flops in the history of Hollywood. Living Reclus since then, the director remains one of the icons of action comedy in the 1980s, thanks in particular to two films: The Beverly Hills cop And Midnight Run. Found by Varietyhe returned in the summer of 2023 to the development of the hit that madeEddie Murphy A superstar: The Beverly Hills cop. An action comedy To be reviewed this evening on W9. And it reveals that at the origin, another much more installed star had to play the first role:

“At the start, it was Stallone who was to be The Beverly Hills cop. I had just been fired from the shooting of Wargames (which he made for three weeks before being replaced by John Badham). I was going through a very dark personal period. I felt that my emerging career was already over. And the producers – Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer – wanted me to make this film with Sylvester Stallone. For any reason, when no one else in the industry wanted me, they really courted me! I first refused, but because they kept harassing me, I decided to do this at battery or face! I launched the room and it came across and I was terrified … But I undertook to do it with Sylvester Stallone As a character of Axel Foley “.

Obviously, The Beverly Hills cop would have been largely different, but Martin Brest explains that he had in mind, at that time, to do “Something with Stallone that no one had ever seen before. There were comic elements, this story of a fish out of its pond. But Stallone wanted to write more an outright drama of action. However, this is not the direction that the studio wanted to take … so he took his script and made it Cobra (released in 1986). So we had to change our rifle and sign Eddie Murphy A few weeks before filming. Eddie’s natural talent and themes and tone, all that combined was perfect. And we restructured the whole story in a few weeks and we wrote the rest as the production progresses.. “

The Beverly Hills cop generated $ 300 million in global revenue and allowed Martin Brest to relaunch his career (he will Funny spies Then Midnight Run in the stride). And he admits today that he did not expect such a timeless hit:

“No and besides, when we chose Eddie Murphy For the role, we had to convince the patterns of the Paramount studio, who had some concern about whether he could carry a film on his shoulders. Because he was then considered a supporting role. For me, it was obvious. As soon as I saw 48 hours (the film of 1982) And this scene where Eddie is in the bar and uses Nick Nolte’s badge, I told myself that he must have his own film. Just with the bar scene, we had a full -fledged film. We didn’t even know the film we were going to make with The Beverly Hills copthree weeks before the shooting, but once we signed Eddie, it changed everything. “

Since the summer of 2024, Axel F.the 4th opus of Beverly Hills copis to be seen on Netflix. Without Stallone, but still carried by Eddie Murphy.

The cop of Beverly Hills 4: Axel without madness (critic)