Beverly Hills Cop was famously almost very different. Before Eddie Murphy nabbed the role of rules-breaking detective Alex Foley, it was briefly in the hands of Sylvester Stallone, who wanted it to be a serious action film. Years later Murphy very, very briefly came close to changing another iconic movie.
As per IndieWire, a recent episode of the podcast 50 MPH, which documents the making of the 1994 blockbuster Speed, had as a guest Don Granger, a former exec at Paramount. The picture was ultimately produced at 20th Century Fox, but before it was, Granger was eager to get it made at Paramount.
Axel Foley on Bus 2525? For 15 minutes, it was possible. pic.twitter.com/H3xNKOaR4v
— 50 MPH (@50MPHPod) July 3, 2023
“I really wanted to try to mount the movie, and my last-ditch effort was … I pitched it at our chairman’s lunch as a possible script for Beverly Hills Cop III,” Granger revealed. “I got about 15 minutes of traction before it was dismissed, because that was back when the mandate was to find a Beverly Hill Cop III. So I was like, ‘Let’s put Axel Foley on the bus.’ It was a Hail Mary, man.”
Granger added, “I might maintain it was a better movie, it would have been a better movie than ultimately what we got for Beverly Hills Cop III, but that was my final Hail Mary.”
One could say the right thing happened: Speed wound up at a different studio with Keanu Reeves as the hero and Sandra Bullock delivering a starmaking turn as the funny woman who takes control of the rigged bus after the driver is non-fatally shot. But what if it was Axel Rose who was the funny one and he’s trapped on a bus that can’t go below 50 miles per hour or it will explode? Would Connor Roy still be aboard?
Then again, as Granger noted, the world also got a not very well-received third Beverly Hills Cop that wasn’t even rated R. But at least it featured no less than George Lucas. May the in-the-works fourth get things back on track.
(Via IndieWire)