The true story behind this rumor about Stallone in Beverly Hills Cop 2

While watching Beverly Hills Cop 2, you may have already seen this poster of Cobra with Sylvester Stallone caught on the phone by Eddie Murphy / Axel Foley. It’s not there by accident, and that’s the whole story.

This poster is no accident

In the mid-1980s, Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, known for producing the hit Flashdance, decided to create a crime comedy. They want the movie to star Eddie Murphy, a rising star on the comedy show Saturday Night Live, who just had a hit with the thriller 48 Hours and then the comedy Armchair for Two.

In addition to Paramount Studios, the distributor of the duo’s films established Starring Sylvester Stallone. First of all, because he is a huge star, coming from Sami Rocky and Rambo – he is the king of the box office – and above all, because he is so interested that he abandons the existing script and writes his own version, also comic, but more. Befitting the tough guy image he gives off.

Paramount wants him to keep the original script, but Stallone insists on writing his own version, which he abandons for her sake. own admission : “I didn’t think I could do it”. Stallone will rework what he wrote for the thriller Cobra, released two years later, which was a box office flop.

Was Stallone mocked in Beverly Hills Cop 2?

Not only was Eddie Murphy cast over Stallone, but his performance as Axel Foley is becoming one of the most iconic of the 80s, and a revelation to a general public that was still unfamiliar with him. He becomes a star.

Upon its release, Beverly Hills Cop was a huge hit with $234.7 million at the US box office, making it the biggest hit of 1984 ahead of Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins. As a result, Eddie Murphy was called a few years later for Beverly Hills Cop 2 (1987), which gave Stallone and specifically the movie Cobra a chance, as we have seen, but not only that!

The aforementioned phone scene takes place in Rosewood’s (Judge Reinhold) apartment, a veritable Amazon of greenery and… Stallone movie posters. We can also distinguish Taggart (John Ashton) behind Rambo II: The Mission.

Or the two films with Cobra that Stallone made after leaving the Beverly Hills Cop project, both of which were less successful than Martin Brest’s first film. Indifference to the person who wanted the role of Eddie Murphy? And why not?