Writer Shane Black Dishes On 'Last Action Hero'
One of my writing heroes is Shane Black. I feel like when I get stuck on the page or am working to type out some noisy dialogue, I turn to Black's movies as inspiration.Films like Lethal Weapon, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and The Nice Guys are a chorus, singing me toward the finish line. Recently, I stumbled upon this clip of Black talking about one of his more unheralded works, Last Action Hero, which, for my money, has one of the greatest titles of all time, and a pretty magical story at its center. Today, I want to watch that clip and discuss what happens within it. Let's dive in. Shane Black on Last Action Hero What I've really admired about Shane Black's career is his willingness to talk openly about the ups and downs of his work. At the time of its release, Last Action Hero was not considered a success. It's a self-aware action comedy that came out against Jurassic Park, and no one saw it. Black jokes that maybe he's destined to make movies for midnight showings. As someone who falls asleep pretty early, I'll just buy them and watch them at home. Black explains that the movie was not original; the initial script was penned by Zak Penn and Adam Leff, but underwent significant changes with contributions from a string of writers, including the legendary Carrie Fisher and William Goldman. Eventually, it came to Shane Black and his writing partner, David Arnott. They had the tough task of taking all these other ideas and combining them into a cohesive movie. But with all those voices, you got a bit of a "muddled" final product. Black explains how jokes and setups were left on the cutting room floor and how the movie breaks the rules it sets up over and over. I think there are a ton of lessons on here for aspiring writers: namely, work hard on the logic of your movie and iron it out. Make it airtight. This logic is what solidifies the tone and the stakes. When you have it and it makes sense, you can incorporate anything else, even magic. Despite its imperfections, the love for Last Action Hero endures, largely thanks to its willingness to poke fun at genre tropes and the world of action movies themselves. In this chat, I do wonder what the movie would have been like with a little more time and freedom in the rewrite. Well, maybe we'll find out if they ever remake it. Summing It All Up These little pearls of wisdom from writers are invaluable to anyone trying to break in, and they provide little checklists of what you need to make sure happens before your work is done. Let me know what you think in the comments.
One of my writing heroes is Shane Black. I feel like when I get stuck on the page or am working to type out some noisy dialogue, I turn to Black's movies as inspiration.
Films like Lethal Weapon, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and The Nice Guys are a chorus, singing me toward the finish line.
Recently, I stumbled upon this clip of Black talking about one of his more unheralded works, Last Action Hero, which, for my money, has one of the greatest titles of all time, and a pretty magical story at its center.
Today, I want to watch that clip and discuss what happens within it.
Let's dive in.
Shane Black on Last Action Hero
What I've really admired about Shane Black's career is his willingness to talk openly about the ups and downs of his work.
At the time of its release, Last Action Hero was not considered a success. It's a self-aware action comedy that came out against Jurassic Park, and no one saw it.
Black jokes that maybe he's destined to make movies for midnight showings.
As someone who falls asleep pretty early, I'll just buy them and watch them at home.
Black explains that the movie was not original; the initial script was penned by Zak Penn and Adam Leff, but underwent significant changes with contributions from a string of writers, including the legendary Carrie Fisher and William Goldman.
Eventually, it came to Shane Black and his writing partner, David Arnott. They had the tough task of taking all these other ideas and combining them into a cohesive movie. But with all those voices, you got a bit of a "muddled" final product.
Black explains how jokes and setups were left on the cutting room floor and how the movie breaks the rules it sets up over and over.
I think there are a ton of lessons on here for aspiring writers: namely, work hard on the logic of your movie and iron it out. Make it airtight.
This logic is what solidifies the tone and the stakes. When you have it and it makes sense, you can incorporate anything else, even magic.
Despite its imperfections, the love for Last Action Hero endures, largely thanks to its willingness to poke fun at genre tropes and the world of action movies themselves.
In this chat, I do wonder what the movie would have been like with a little more time and freedom in the rewrite.
Well, maybe we'll find out if they ever remake it.
Summing It All Up
These little pearls of wisdom from writers are invaluable to anyone trying to break in, and they provide little checklists of what you need to make sure happens before your work is done.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
