Sylvester Stallone could easily be called the “champion of champions” in the 1980s – in fact, he even has a title in Portuguese for one of his hits from that time, with the truck driver and arm wrestling specialist Falcão who has exactly that expression.
Therefore, most action productions revolved around his figure; Whatever role Sly – as he is called by friends and family – wanted, he got it, delivered on a golden platter (silver was not enough to sum up the star’s box office return). Except once.
The producers of ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ (1984) were decided that it was necessary to make a police comedy with Stallone and had already chosen a director for the venture, Martin Brest, one of the most competent from the mid-1980s onwards and part of the 1990, with hits such as ‘Midnight Run‘ (1988) and ‘Scent of a Woman’ (1992), but at that time very low – he had just been fired from ‘War Games’ (1983) and with his self-esteem overthrown.
Director’s revelation
“I went through a very dark personal period. I was under the impression that my then budding career was already over. For some reason, even though no one else in the business gave me the time of day, they [the producers] really pursued me for it. It was crazy and I was terrified, but I committed to doing ‘Beverley Cop’ with Sylvester Stallone as Axel Foley”, revealed the director many years later, in a statement to ‘Variety’ magazine.
The problem, said Brest, was precisely Stallone’s size in those years. He was a star who could do anything, knew it and made demands that mere mortals in Hollywood would never dare. He wanted to completely modify the script for ‘Beverly Hills Cop‘, removing the comedy tone from the story of the Detroit police officer who goes to Los Angeles to investigate the murder of a teenage friend.
From the contrast of the city in the Midwest of the USA, cold and decadent, but with more visible criminals and lighter cops, with the slick and opulent California, with criminals disguised as business men and stupid police officers, many of the jokes are born. The moment when Foley gets into a police car and says: “I’ve never been in one this clean” is unforgettable.
“My idea was to do something with Stallone that no one had seen before. There were some comedic elements because he was a fish out of water, but he rewrote it as a kind of straight-up action drama,” said Brest.
To the general happiness of fans of 1980s cinema, the producers sided with the filmmaker – especially because the version created by Stallone would cost much more. The star then left the project and two years later gave his vision on the subject – playing a police officer from those times – in ‘Cobra’ (1986).
However, it is worth mentioning that the story of the cop wearing dark glasses and living on old pizza, cut with scissors to be put back in his empty fridge, as if it were food, also has many moments of comedy – some of them became memes and are alive on the internet to this day. Whether they are involuntary or not is for Sly to say.
The fact is that the actor’s withdrawal paved the way for Eddie Murphy, hired just a few weeks before the filming of ‘ Beverly Hills Cop ‘. He was not yet a Hollywood A-list star, despite his great reputation on the TV show ‘Saturday Night Live’ and acclaimed films such as ’48 Hours’ (1982) and ‘Tracking the Balls’ (1983).
Beverly Hills Cop
But ‘The Beverly Hills Cop’ was his big chance to be the protagonist and show his entire repertoire, already well known to those who followed him as a stand-up comedian. He didn’t let it go. “The nature of Eddie’s talent and the topic I wanted to cover and the tone I wanted to apply to the film, it was all perfect,” summarized Brest.
‘ Beverly Hills Cop ‘ was a huge box office success worldwide – more than US$300 million (unbelievable value for the genre and for the time). It became a trilogy, with other films in 1987 and 1994, without the same “punch”, but still profitable, and will have a fourth episode, scheduled for release in July this year and with Murphy starring alongside well-known actors, such as Kevin Bacon and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Two familiar faces from the 1980s film will also be back – Judge Reinhold, as the naive (is he still?) police officer Billy and Bronson Pinchot, the affected Serge from the original feature film and who Brazilian audiences know well from the series’ Cross Cousin’.
There is no comedy economy, proving that even Stallone could sometimes be wrong.
