The earlier Eddie Murphy movie from Paramount Pictures, 48 Hrs. (1982) was, during the late 1970s, originally designed as a vehicle for Richard Pryor as the con (with Clint Eastwood as the cop). The picture, then in development at Columbia Pictures, went into turnaround for a time, and didn't go back into development for another couple of years, where it re-surfaced at Paramount, the studio which had a near-total monopoly on Murphy movies during the 1980s, and this included both 48 Hrs. (1982) and Harlem Nights (1989).