Extremely Rare Beverly Hills Helicopter Landing OK’d For Netflix Film

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — In a dramatic, heroic moment, a helicopter hovers above the steps leading to Beverly Hills City Hall. A person exits the front of the iconic building, wind blowing in their hair, for a short stand-off with the pilot.

The cryptic scene is a heroic apex to the upcoming "Beverly Hills Cop 4" movie, and Netflix wants to film it in Beverly Hills.

But a helicopter landing is a big ask, so Netflix may have to sweeten the deal.

The Beverly Hills city council on Tuesday gave the production the green light to hover and land a helicopter in front of City Hall, a maneuver that will require intermittent road closures on North Crescent Drive and an exception to the municipal code, which only allows helicopters to land for presidential visits and emergency medical aid.

The additional approval comes two months after the council made script review a contingency for certain film clearances within city limits for the addition to the beloved "Beverly Hills Cop" franchise. A representative of the city approved the script on July 26 after reading it to ensure it depicts the city positively and fairly.

"We understand that this is a one-of-a-kind request," said Dan Cooley, location manager for the "Beverly Hills Cop 4" production.

"The goal here is to create something that is unique and special," Cooley said at Tuesday's meeting. "We want to shoot it practically so we can really create something special to kind of honor the city. There's a lot of pride with showing City Hall and being this close to City Hall, and we respect that but we want to reflect that too."

But the helicopter will have to land with strings attached — the city is expecting Netflix to make a contribution to the Beverly Hills Police Department that could meet a threshold worthy of its inclusion among the likes of the president and emergency services. The specifics of such a contribution were not determined, but the council and production personnel discussed a number of options.

Benefit To The City

Council members and Cooley kicked around a couple of ideas, like Netflix helping with BHPD recruitment and marketing materials. No matter the format, the production will be expected make a significant contribution to the police department, Bosse said.

Highlighting the city's recent investment in police technology could be a good place to start, Cooley suggested.

The city recently put nearly half a million dollars into an extensive real-time watch center to coordinate its over 2,000-camera system, drones, automated license plate readers and more.

"There's really no city I've seen anywhere in the country that even comes close to the technology that BHPD has," Cooley said at an Aug. 18 council liaison meeting. "And I know we're trying to incorporate that into our script more and talk about it. I spoke with our good friends at the studio, trying to come up with a way of [how we can] get creative and help market whatever we want to get out there, collectively, whether it's recruitment, whether it's helping market the technology and incorporate it into our film."

Councilmember Sharona Nazarian and Mayor Lili Bosse both mentioned help with police recruitment as a potential benefit, as the city has been actively looking to recruit police for months. A contribution would have to go beyond just marketing or recruitment materials, Bosse said.

"Right now the media is portraying Beverly Hills as a war zone," Nazarian said. "[I like] the idea of maybe a media campaign or helping us with some kind of recruitment video."

Netflix's legal team will work with City Attorney Larry Wiener to create a location agreement reflective of such an extraordinary ask, Cooley said.

Councilmember John Mirisch expressed some lingering concern about the script's content and pushed to allow council members to read the pages even after a city representative gave it the green light.

"Make no mistake about it, this is a hero film about Beverly Hills Police Department and the fine young men and women who serve us," Cooley said at Tuesday's meeting.

The movie, frequently referred to as a "public-private partnership," ultimately intends to make the city of Beverly Hills look good, Cooley said.

"We're looking at this as a hero cop film. This is a hero film for the Beverly Hills Police Department," Cooley said at the liaison meeting."It's really a big hero moment for Beverly Hills PD as well. Without giving away story, this is the hero moment, the savior moment that we're looking for. We wanted to be very surgical about picking this one spot to show it off."

In previous meetings, Cooley and other council members referenced certain local issues the film should avoid, like smash-and-grab robberies. The production is sensitive to the city facing difficult times in recent years, Cooley said.

The Beverly Hills Police Department has faced public scrutiny in recent years for a number of scandals related to tactics and race. Former Beverly Hills Police Chief Sandra Spagnoli resigned in April 2020 amid lawsuits claiming she had made racist remarks and harassed employees. The department more recently faced a class-action lawsuit claiming the department engaged in large-scale racial profiling.

The city has also seen high-profile crimes in recent months including home invasion and commercial robberies that have brought public safety to the fore of the city's discourse.

Setting The Scene

The helicopter maneuver in front of City Hall can hardly be called a stunt, Cooley told the council. Even still, Beverly Hills will still employ a number of safety measures to protect itself.

More disruptive helicopter scenes, like a high-speed helicopter chase, will be outsourced to areas like downtown Los Angeles and private country clubs, Cooley said. Beverly Hills will only host the culmination of the scene when a low-flying helicopter moves back and forth around City Hall and ultimately lands on North Crescent Drive.

The scene will be filmed between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sept. 24, during which time the helicopter will take flight four or five times for around 15 minutes each, Cooley said. This means all road closures on Crescent Drive will be intermittent, not a full six-hour stop.

The filming will generate concerning sounds for a community already anxious about local crime, Councilmember Sharona Nazarian said at Tuesday's meeting. Proper notice will be key for pulling off such a scene. The city will use all available communication methods to warn residents, Chief Communications Officer Keith Sterling said. The helicopter should only be significantly heard for two city blocks, Cooley said.

"Already our residents are on edge," Nazarian said. "If they don't get a notice and they see a helicopter landing, they're going to think we are being attacked or something. So I think that's going to be a very important component, to get our residents on board and let them all know."

The production made a number of adjustments to minimize impact in the city, like shortening the helicopter's flight path and reducing the amount of fuel in the helicopter to reduce risk in the event of a crash. The city's police and fire departments have met with the production on multiple occasions and will be actively involved in the filming.

Fred North will fly the helicopter. He has flown for famous franchises like Transformers and Fast and Furious and movies like "Skyscraper" and "Jumanji."