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Easter eggs
Hidden details in every movie and series: 12 in total. Tap a poster to see its eggs. Titles you haven't marked as seen stay locked so nothing gets spoiled.
- Referencenod to comics or other movies
- Cameoa familiar face shows up
- Setupplanted now, pays off later
- Behind the scenesproduction trivia
- Behind the scenesBefore Murphy, it was almost Stallone
Mickey Rourke signed a holding contract for the part, and Sylvester Stallone rewrote the script as a straight action film with no humor. His Axel would have been named Axel Cobretti, and the finale had a stolen Lamborghini playing chicken with a freight train.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesScorsese and Cronenberg said no
Martin Scorsese was offered the film and turned it down, feeling the concept was too close to 1968's Coogan's Bluff. David Cronenberg also passed. The film ended up with Martin Brest.
source ↗ - SetupThe real City Hall
The Beverly Hills police headquarters in the film is, in real life, Beverly Hills City Hall. The building features prominently in the series as the police station.
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- Behind the scenesIt was meant for London and Paris
The original script was set in Europe. After Eddie Murphy said he didn't want to shoot outside the US, it was rewritten for Beverly Hills. Tony Scott was hired on the strength of Top Gun.
source ↗ - CameoRonny Cox and RoboCop
Captain Bogomil was meant to have more screen time, but Ronny Cox was busy with another role: the villain of RoboCop. Shooting ran from November 1986 to March 1987, 135 days.
source ↗ - ReferenceGeorge Michael joins the soundtrack
The film introduced George Michael's "I Want Your Sex," which hit number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Bob Seger's "Shakedown" was also on the soundtrack and reached number 1.
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- Behind the scenesThe original plan was London
In early drafts, Axel, Billy and Taggart went to London to rescue Captain Bogomil, held by terrorists. Delays and schedules pulled out John Ashton and Ronny Cox, so Taggart was written as retired in Phoenix and Bogomil vanished.
source ↗ - SetupA photo on Billy's desk
Ashton and Cox appear only in passing, in a photo: Axel, Taggart, Billy and Bogomil on a fishing trip, on Billy's desk. It is the same photo seen in Beverly Hills Cop II.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe ideas that got dropped
Before the final script, the project had a Robert Towne draft about Axel's celebrity, a pairing of Murphy with Sean Connery as a Scotland Yard detective, and another version with John Cleese. In 1989, Murphy said he would only do a third one for a lot of money.
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- Behind the scenesA film to make amends
Eddie Murphy said one reason to make a fourth film was to make up for the third, which he called "horrible." The project was announced in the 1990s and spent decades in development before Netflix released it.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe script where Billy died
In 2008, Michael Brandt and Derek Haas wrote a version for Brett Ratner in which Axel returns to Beverly Hills to investigate the murder of Billy Rosewood. The script was rejected.
source ↗ - CameoJohn Ashton's final role
Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser and Bronson Pinchot return, and Kevin Bacon and Joseph Gordon-Levitt join. It was the final role for John Ashton, who plays Taggart.
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