Speed Once Pitched As Beverly Hills Cop 3

High-octane ‘90s thriller Speed was once pitched as Beverly Hills Cop 3.

During an interview with the 50MPH podcast (originally reported by ComicBook.com) former Paramount vice president of production, Don Granger revealed how Speed was almost never made.

“I really wanted to try to mount the movie,” he explained. “And my last-ditch effort was I pitched it at our chairman’s lunch as a possible script for Beverly Hills Cop 3.”

The problem, Granger explained, was that Paramount wasn’t interested in Speed.

“They probably thought it was kind of a goofy idea,” said producer Mark Gordon. “You know, when you think about the idea of a bus, if you drop below 50 the bus is going blow up, that could be really silly, you know? And I think that ultimately the thing that made it kind of silly was the thing that made it terrific.”

1994 blockbuster Speed stars Keanu Reeves as LAPD SWAT bomb disposal officer Jack Traven, who just happens to be stuck on a bus that’s rigged to explode If its speed drops below 50MPH. The classic thriller made Reeves a household name, but while producers were keen on the idea, it looks as though Paramount rook a lot of convincing.

“It was not grounded completely in reality,” said Gordon. “The characters were grounded, but it was also funny. Graham [Yost] is a very funny writer. I think it had just the right level of fun and sort of popcorn-ness, but also, it was brutal. There was violence in it. So, we never got to the point of budgeting or having any real conversations. It was just put into turnaround and they just said, you know, ‘Here you go, we’re not going to make this film. Good luck with it.’ ”

However, in a last-ditch effort, Granger pitched Speed as a Beverly Hills Cop sequel. At the time, Paramount was obsessed with working out Beverly Hills Cop 3, and Granger felt this was the only way to keep Speed on the table. “I got about 15 minutes of traction before it was dismissed,” he said. “Because that was back when the mandate was to find a Beverly Hills Cop 3 so I was like, ‘Let’s put Axel Foley on the bus.’ It was a Hail Mary, man.”

Beverly Hills Cop 3 was eventually penned by Steven E. de Souza and told the laughably over-the-top story of a corrupt theme park, called Wonderworld. “I might maintain it was a better movie,” said Granger. “It would have been a better movie than ultimately what we got for Beverly Hills Cop 3, but that was my final Hail Mary.”

Want to read more about Keanu Reeves? Check out our rankings of the best Keanu Reeves movies as well as all of Keanu Reeves’ best film stunts.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.