Shane Black

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Shane Black
Born	December 16, 1961 (1961-12-16) (age 47) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Other name(s)	Harry Lime, Holly Martins
Years active	1987–current

Shane Black (born December 16, 1961) is an American actor, screenwriter and film director. He is responsible for the some of the biggest blockbuster action films of the late 1980s and early 1990s, including Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout.^[1]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Acting 2.2 Screenwriting 2.2.1 Style 3 Awards and honors 4 Personal life 5 Filmography 5.1 Acting 5.2 Directing 5.3 Producing 5.4 Screenwriting 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Early life

Black was born and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Patricia Ann and Paul Black. His father was a football star in college and later founded his own printing business.^[2] Black's family moved to Fullerton, California and attended Sunny Hills High School, a renowned magnet school.^[3]

He studied theater at UCLA and graduated in 1983 with the intent to become an actor. While looking for a way to make some income as he struggled to find acting roles, his friend Fred Dekker encouraged Black to try his hand at screenwriting. Remembering what he learned from a dramatic writing class he took in college, he borrowed a typewriter and went to work on his first script. At the age of 23 Black wrote his second screenplay, Lethal Weapon, in six weeks. His agent David Greenblatt sold the screenplay in three days. The film would become a successful franchise and help Mel Gibson become a superstar celebrity.

[edit] Career

[edit] Acting

Black's first acting role came in the film Predator; since then he has acted in a further five films and in one television episode for the TV series Dark Justice.

[edit] Screenwriting

The majority of Black's career is in screenwriting - he has written 10 scripts. He sold his first screenplay Lethal Weapon released in 1987 for $250,000 and was paid $125,000 as a co-writer of Lethal Weapon 2 released in 1989. Since then he made substantially more money as a screenwriter. He received $1.75 million for his screenplay The Last Boy Scout released in 1991, and $1 million for Last Action Hero released in 1993. At the height of his career he was the highest paid screenwriter in the Hollywood movie industry, making $4 million for penning The Long Kiss Goodnight.^[1] Black was the writer and director for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Black has admitted on numerous occasions that many of the scripts he had written for other directors, although commanding a hefty sum, were rewritten to a point where they scarcely resembled his product.

“

But the two scripts—The Last Boy Scout, which at that time sold for more money than any other script, and The Long Kiss Goodnight which sold for much more money at that time than any other script—were both extensively rewritten.

”

Black used the pseudonyms Harry Lime and Holly Martins, the names of two leading characters in the film The Third Man, for certain projects.

[edit] Style

Black has a recognizable writing style where he often adds comments and jokes about the situations taking place in the story. He also sometimes directs comments at studio executives and certain script readers. He has given a list of techniques he uses when writing films in an interview with The Guardian.^[4]

He has used kidnapping as a plot device in several films: Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Five of his scripts start with the letter L. At least four of his screenplays take place during Christmas.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Personal life

In February 2009 he was sued by his former girlfriend for assault, battery, and emotional distress; she claims that during the course of their relationship, he punched, choked, kicked, and attempted to shoot her.^[5] In March 2009 he counter-sued her, claiming that she was the violent one.^[6]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Acting

• 1987: Predator as Hawkins
• 1988: Dead Heat as Patrolman
• 1991: Dark Justice (1 TV episode, "Nowhere to Hide")
• 1993: RoboCop 3 as Donnelly
• 1994: Night Realm
• 1997: As Good as It Gets as Frank, Cafe 24 manager
• 1997: An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn as Himself
• 2002: The Boy Scout as Henchman #2

[edit] Directing

• 2005: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

[edit] Producing

• 1991: The Last Boy Scout (executive producer)
• 1996: The Long Kiss Goodnight (producer)
• 2006: A.W.O.L. (executive producer) (as Harry Lime)

[edit] Screenwriting

• 1987: Lethal Weapon
• 1987: The Monster Squad
• 1989: Lethal Weapon 2 ("Story by" credit)
• 1991: The Last Boy Scout
• 1992: Lethal Weapon 3 (Characters)
• 1993: Last Action Hero
• 1996: The Long Kiss Goodnight
• 1998: Lethal Weapon 4 (Characters)
• 2005: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
• 2006: A.W.O.L. (as Holly Martins)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Shane Black at the Internet Movie Database
• Shane Black at Allmovie

v • d • e Lethal Weapon Films Lethal Weapon (1987) • Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) • Lethal Weapon 3 (1992) • Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) Cast Mel Gibson • Danny Glover • Joe Pesci • Rene Russo • Chris Rock • Darlene Love • Steve Kahan • Mary Ellen Trainor • Gary Busey • Mitchell Ryan • Tom Atkins • Jackie Swanson • Ed O'Ross • Joss Ackland • Derrick O'Connor • Patsy Kensit • Stuart Wilson • Jet Li • Kim Chan Crew Richard Donner • Joel Silver • Shane Black • Michael Kamen • Eric Clapton • David Sanborn • Stephen Goldblatt • Stuart Baird • Bobby Bass • Rorion Gracie • Dar Robinson • Warren Murphy • Jeffrey Boam • Robert Mark Kamen • Elton John • Jan de Bont • Jonathan Lemkin • Alfred Gough • Miles Millar • Andrzej Bartkowiak Music Lethal Weapon (soundtrack) • Lethal Weapon 3 (soundtrack) • "Jingle Bell Rock" • "Cheer Down" • "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" • "Since I Don't Have You" • "It's Probably Me" • "Fire in the Hole" • "Why Can't We Be Friends?" Other articles Lethal Weapon (video game) • Lethal Weapon - The Ride • Lethal Weapon 3 (pinball)