Shane Black

Shane Black
Born (1961-12-16) December 16, 1961
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation Screenwriter, actor, film director
Years active 1987–current

Shane Black (born December 16, 1961)[1] is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and actor. He wrote such late 1980s and early 1990s action movie hits as Lethal Weapon (1987) and made his directorial debut with the film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005). His acting credits include Predator (1987).

In 2013, he co-wrote and directed Iron Man 3, which currently ranks as the tenth highest grossing film of all time worldwide (unadjusted for inflation).[2]

Early life

Black was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,[3] the son of Paul and Patricia Ann Black. His father was in the printing business,[1] and helped Black get an interest in hardboiled fiction, such as the works of Mickey Spillane and the Matt Helm series.[4]

After living in the suburbs of Lower Burrell and Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania, his family moved to Fullerton, California, during his sophomore year of high school.[3] There he attended Sunny Hills High School[5] and later attended UCLA where he majored in film and theater. While Black had a long history writing, doing comic strips, short stories, and journalism, only during his senior year he decided to make a living out of it, once his classmate Fred Dekker showed him a science fiction script he did for an assignment.[4] Black's older brother Terry also wrote short stories and decided to move into screenplays starting with 1988's Dead Heat.[6]

Career

Screenwriting and acting

After graduating, Black worked as a typist for a temp agency, a data entry clerk for the 1984 Summer Olympics and an usher in a Westwood movie theater. Eventually he asked for financial support of his parents during the six month development of a script, The Shadow Company, a supernatural thriller set in Vietnam.[4] With Dekker's help, the script landed him an agent and several lunch meetings with mid-level studio executives. This only attracted interest of 20th Century Fox executives, who were interested in having Black rewrite scripts.[7] Eventually Black wrote an action film script, Lethal Weapon, in about six weeks, which landed him a $250,000 deal with Warner Bros. During the rewrites, Black asked producer Joel Silver for a small acting role in another film Silver was preparing at the time, Predator, a film for which Black also made uncredited contributions to the script. At the same time, Black helped Dekker write The Monster Squad, which along with Lethal Weapon and Predator came out in 1987.[4] Since then, Black has acted in five additional films and in one television episode for the TV series Dark Justice.

Once Warner Bros. requested a Lethal Weapon sequel, Black wrote the first draft of Lethal Weapon 2 with the help of novelist Warren Murphy. Feeling burnt out and having conflicts with the studio, Black left the project after six months, earning only $125,000 (out of a $250,000 payment split with Murphy) for his work.[4][7] After two sabbatical years, Black decided to take on an old idea of his that emerged during the production of Lethal Weapon and turn it into a full screenplay. The result, The Last Boy Scout, earned him $1.75 million in 1991.[7] Black would also earn $1 million for his rewrite of Last Action Hero in 1993.[8] He would set a record by receiving $4 million for writing The Long Kiss Goodnight in 1994.[9]

Directing

Black made his directorial debut with 2005's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and later directed (and co-wrote with Drew Pearce) 2013's Iron Man 3, which currently ranks as the tenth highest grossing film of all time worldwide.[2] Black's next projects include an adaptation of Doc Savage.[10][11]

In June 2014, it was announced that Black would direct a murder conspiracy thriller titled The Nice Guys, with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling starring and Joel Silver producing.[12] Warner Bros. would handle the North American rights to the film.[13] The film will be released on May 20, 2016.[14]

Later in the same month, it was also announced that Black would co-write with Fred Dekker[15][16] and direct alone the next film in the Predator series.[16][17] The film will bet titled The Predator and will be released on March 2, 2018.[18]

Black is also set to direct The Destroyer, based on the 1985 film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, starring Fred Ward.

Style

Black has a recognizable writing style where he often adds comments (referred to as "Shane Blackisms")[19] and jokes about the story situations into the scene directions of the script. He also sometimes directs comments at studio executives and script readers. Examples of these include:

From Lethal Weapon:

“ EXT. POSH BEVERLY HILLS HOME - TWILIGHT

The kind of house that I'll buy if this movie is a huge hit. Chrome. Glass. Carved wood. Plus an outdoor solarium: A glass structure, like a greenhouse only there's a big swimming pool inside. This is a really great place to have sex.[20]

 ”

From The Last Boy Scout:

“ Remember Jimmy's friend, Henry, who we met briefly near the opening of the film? Of course you do, you're a highly-paid reader or development person. ”

This approach, which Black summed as "more open to the reader" and aimed as "trying to keep people awake", was described by himself as a combination of William Goldman, his mentor in screenwriting, and Walter Hill, who had a "terse and Spartan, punchy prose".[21]

He has used kidnapping as a plot device in several films: Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Iron Man 3. Black also used a Christmas theme in Lethal Weapon, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Iron Man 3.

Black gave a list of techniques he uses when writing films in an interview with The Guardian.[22]

Awards and honors

Black received the Distinguished Screenwriter Award from the Austin Film Festival October 21, 2006. In 2005, he received the Best Original Screenplay award for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang from the San Diego Film Critics Association.

Filmography

Year Title Functioned as Notes
Director Writer Role
1986 Night of the Creeps No No Cop in Police Station Uncredited
1987 Lethal Weapon No Yes
Predator No No Hawkins
The Monster Squad No Yes
1988 Dead Heat No No Patrolman
1989 Lethal Weapon 2 No Yes
1990 The Hunt for Red October No No USS Reuben James Crewman Uncredited
1991 The Last Boy Scout No Yes Also executive producer
Dark Justice (TV series) No No Caldecott Rush Episode "Nowhere to Hide"
1993 RoboCop 3 No No Donnelly
Last Action Hero No Yes
Mike the Detective No No Mike Short film
1994 Night Realm No No Role
1996 The Long Kiss Goodnight No Yes Also producer
1997 As Good as It Gets No No Brian, Cafe 24 manager
An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn No No Himself Cameo
2002 The Boy Scout (short film) No No Henchman #2
2005 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Yes Yes
2006 A.W.O.L. (short) No Yes Credited as Holly Martins
Also executive producer as Harry Lime
2007 Monkeys No No Role
2013 Iron Man 3 Yes Yes
Marvel One-Shot: Agent Carter (short)[23] No No Disembodied Voice Voice only
2015 Any Day No No Gino
2016 The Nice Guys[24] Yes Yes
2016 Swing State No No Luke
2018 The Predator[25] Yes Yes
TBA The Destroyer[26] Yes Yes
TBA Doc Savage[27] Yes Yes

References

  1. 1 2 "Shane Black Biography (1961-)". FilmReference.com. Retrieved November 16, 2012.
  2. 1 2 "All Time Worldwide Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
  3. 1 2 Vancheri, Barbara (June 8, 2012). "Film Notes: A local connection to 'Iron Man 3'". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Archived from the original on November 16, 2012. Retrieved November 16, 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Greenberg, James. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Millionaire. Los Angeles Times
  5. ↑ Winters, Laura. "Shane Black, Coming Back With a 'Bang': 'Lethal Weapon' Writer Rearms With Sendup", Washington Post, 6 November 2005, retrieved June 29, 2007.
  6. ↑ His Wishes Upon A Set Come True
  7. 1 2 3 Million Dollar Babies, New York Magazine
  8. ↑ "Taylor, Thom". The Big Deal: Hollywood's Million-Dollar Spec Script Market. Harper Perennial. 1999.
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ Siegel, Tatiana (February 22, 2010). "Columbia revives Doc Savage". Variety. Retrieved 2010-02-27.
  11. ↑ 'Iron Man 3' Director Shane Black to Direct 'Doc Savage' for Sony
  12. ↑ "Ryan Gosling & Russell Crowe May Be 'Nice Guys' for Shane Black". firstshowing.net. 12 June 2014. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  13. ↑ "Warner Bros In ‘Nice Guys’ Talks With Shane Black, Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling". deadline.com.
  14. ↑ "Russell Crowe-Ryan Gosling Pic ‘The Nice Guys’ Gets Summer 2016 Release Date". deadline.com.
  15. ↑ Miska, Brad (June 23, 2014). "Fred Dekker’s ‘Predator’ Script Completed!". BD. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
  16. 1 2 Chitwood, Adam (June 25, 2014). "Exclusive: Shane Black Says His PREDATOR Film Is a Sequel, Not a Reboot". Collider. Retrieved June 25, 2014.
  17. ↑ Kit, Borys (June 23, 2014). "Fox Rebooting 'Predator' With Shane Black (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
  18. ↑ http://collider.com/alien-covenant-predator-release-date-fox/
  19. ↑ "WordPlay: Column 23". Terry Rossio, 1997. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
  20. ↑ "Lethal Weapon, script". The Daily Script. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
  21. ↑ Psycho Pension: The Genesis of Lethal Weapon (Documentary). Lethal Weapon Collection, disk 5: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. 2012.
  22. ↑ Delaney, Sam (May 22, 2009). "Crash, bang, wallop what a picture". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  23. ↑ Fletcher, Rosie (July 19, 2013). "Marvel's Agent Carter reaction: Comic-Con 2013". TotalFilm. Retrieved July 21, 2013.
  24. ↑ Kit, Borys (10 July 2014). "Warner Bros. Picks Up Shane Black's 'Nice Guys' With Ryan Gosling, Russell Crowe". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  25. ↑ Kit, Borys (24 June 2014). "Fox Rebooting 'Predator' With Shane Black (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  26. ↑ Hayden, Erik (21 August 2014). "Shane Black to Direct 'The Destroyer' for Sony". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  27. ↑ Kit, Borys (7 May 2013). "'Iron Man 3' Director Refocuses on 'Doc Savage'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 21 August 2014.

External links

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