Director Martin Scorsese made hits like “The Wolf Of Wall Street,” “GoodFellas” and “The Departed.” But an often copied, extremely successful action comedy almost ended up on his CV.
Director legend Martin Scorsese gave the film world such masterpieces as the thriller “Taxi Driver”, the rough boxer drama “Raging Bull” and the gangster film “Casino”. But there is one genre missing from Scorsese’s CV: a real action comedy. However, it almost happened once!
At the beginning of the 1980s, Scorsese was asked by hit producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson for a humorous action crime film: “Beverly Hills Cop”.
The Long Road to Beverly Hills
Since “Beverly Hills Cop” is one of the biggest successes in US cinema history with an estimated 69.9 million tickets sold, there are many contradictory myths surrounding the creation of the mega-blockbuster. For example: Studio manager Michael Eisner claims in his autobiography “Disney is an adventure every day” that he had the basic idea for the film in 1975.
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But it’s not just Eisner, who worked at Paramount Pictures in the 1970s and steered Disney’s fortunes in various positions from 1984 to 2005, who presents himself as the inventor of “Beverly Hills Cop.” Don Simpson, who, together with Bruckheimer, created hits like ” Flashdance” and “Top Gun”, he claimed throughout his life that he came up with the basic idea for the film – but he cites the year 1977 as the initial spark.
No matter how the ball got rolling, it is recorded that screenwriter Danilo Bach wrote an action-heavy version of the story in the early 1980s that had no humorous element whatsoever. This script was then given to Daniel Petrie Jr. for revision, whereupon he added a comedic component to it.
Before Eddie Murphy came Rourke and Stallone
It was then the later “Pirates of the Caribbean” producer Bruckheimer who prevailed and looked for a leading actor with whom this script version should be filmed. His first choice: Mickey Rourke!
The “Sin City” roughneck was still at the beginning of his career at the time, but had already worked (albeit in smaller roles) with directors like Steven Spielberg and Michael Cimino. Rourke even agreed to film “Beverly Hills Cop” – but when the planned start of filming was postponed due to further script revisions, Rourke dropped out again.
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Bruckheimer, Simpson and Paramount Pictures were also eager to find a director: among others, body horror specialist David Cronenberg was approached, but like Scorsese, he declined. Incidentally, Scorsese gave the reason for his rejection that the script (in the version presented to him) was too close to the Clint Eastwood vehicle “Coogan’s Big Bluff”. A film he didn’t want to compete with.
Ultimately, Martin Brest took over directing duties on Beverly Hills Cop. Brest previously made the humorous heist film “The Pensioner Gang” and later made films such as “The Scent of Women” and “Rendezvous with Joe Black”. The main role, in turn, briefly went to Sylvester Stallone, who, however, had a deadly serious film in mind, before Eddie Murphy finally took over the project – and, as is well known, made the comedy level in “Beverly Hills Cop” skyrocket.
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