Shane Black

Early life and education

Black was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Paul and Patricia Ann Black. His father was in the printing business, and helped Black develop his interest in hardboiled fiction, including the works of Mickey Spillane and the Matt Helm series. He grew up in the suburbs of Lower Burrell and Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and later moved to Fullerton, California, during his sophomore year of high school. In Fullerton, he attended Sunny Hills High School.

He attended UCLA, where he majored in film and theater and graduated in 1983. During his senior year, he decided to make a living in the film industry once his classmate, Fred Dekker, showed him a science fiction script he did for an assignment.

Black's older brother, Terry Black, who also wrote short stories, decided to move into screenplays starting with 1988's Dead Heat, in which Shane had a cameo. 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 age 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. He has two kids.

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.

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. Since then, Black has acted in five additional films and in two episodes 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. Although it was not used, Black said in later interviews that Warner Bros. did not like his original script for Lethal Weapon 2, which was also titled Play Dirty, because of how dark and violent it was and due to his decision to kill off main character Martin Riggs in the ending of the script. Black considers it to be his best work and the best script he has written.

Feeling burned out and having conflicts with the studio, Black left the project after six months, earning $125,000 out of a $250,000 payment split with Murphy, for his work. He set a record by receiving $4 million for writing The Long Kiss Goodnight in 1994.

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 as of 2024 ranks as the twenty-fifth-highest-grossing film of all time worldwide.

Black next directed and co-wrote Edge, a pilot for a potential series for Amazon Studios. The film was released on video on demand but not picked up for a series. He followed this with the action comedy The Nice Guys, starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, and produced by Joel Silver. Warner Bros. handled North American rights to the film, which was released on May 20, 2016.

Black next directed the fourth non-Alien-related film in the Predator series, The Predator, which he co-wrote with Fred Dekker. The film was released on September 14, 2018. Black hired his friend Steven Wilder Striegel for a minor, un-auditioned role in The Predator (as well as, previously, Iron Man 3 and The Nice Guys). Striegel spent six months in prison in 2010, having pleaded guilty to risk of injury to a child and enticing a minor by computer after he had attempted to lure a 14-year-old girl into a sexual relationship via email. Olivia Munn, an actress in The Predator, insisted on having a scene with Striegel removed after she discovered his history. Black initially defended his decision and his friend, but later rescinded them and released a public apology.

In 2024, Black directed the film Play Dirty, an adaptation of Donald E. Westlake's Parker novel series.

Black's unrealized projects included an adaptation of Doc Savage and The Destroyer, based on the series of paperback adventure novels that previously inspired the 1985 film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, starring Fred Ward. He was briefly attached by Warner Bros. in 2011 to direct a live-action American adaptation of the Japanese supernatural-thriller manga series Death Note, bringing his collaborators Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry to write the screenplay, replacing Charley and Vlas Parlapanides as the project's previous screenwriters. By 2014, he had left the project, due to reported creative differences and other commitments. Director Adam Wingard was eventually hired to helm the project by 2015.

Style

Black has a recognizable writing style characterized by stories in which two main characters become friends, problematic protagonists who become better human beings at the end of the narrative, and trade witty dialogue, featuring labyrinthine crime plots, often set during Christmas time. The quips he incorporates into his scripts are referred to as "Shane Blackisms", in which jokes about the story situations are included in the scene directions of the script. He also sometimes directs comments at studio executives and script readers. Examples of these include:

From Lethal Weapon:

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.}}

From The Last Boy Scout:

This approach, which Black summed as "more open to the reader" and aimed at "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". Black gave a list of techniques he uses when writing films in an interview with The Guardian.

Black explains that Christmas, which has been used as a backdrop in Lethal Weapon, Last Action Hero, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man 3, The Nice Guys and Play Dirty (and in his original script for The Last Boy Scout, although references to the date have been almost entirely eliminated from the film), is a touchstone for him, explaining:

Filmography

Film

Uncredited script doctor

• Predator (1987)
• Dead Heat (1988)
• The Hunt for Red October (1990)
• RoboCop 3 (1993)

Unproduced

• Shadow Company (1988)
• Sgt. Rock (1989)
• Wild Wild West (1992)
• Fear Itself (1995)
• Lethal Weapon 5 (2008)
• Cold Warrior (2008)
• Doc Savage (2010)
• Death Note (2011)
• The Destroyer (2014)
• Hobbs & Shaw (2017)
• The Avengers (2018)

Television

Acting credits

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.

References

References

1. Kit, Borys. (June 23, 2014). "Fox Rebooting 'Predator' With Shane Black (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
2. Vancheri, Barbara. (June 8, 2012). "Film Notes: A local connection to 'Iron Man 3'". [[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]].
3. "Shane Black Biography (1961-)". FilmReference.com.
4. Greenberg, James. [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-19-tm-3052-story.html Portrait of the Artist as a Young Millionaire]. ''Los Angeles Times''
5. Winters, Laura. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/04/AR2005110400411.html "Shane Black, Coming Back With a 'Bang': 'Lethal Weapon' Writer Rearms With Sendup"], ''Washington Post'', November 6, 2005, retrieved June 29, 2007.
6. "2017 newsletter".
7. (September 24, 1987). "His Wishes Upon A Set Come True". LA Times.
8. With Dekker's help, the script landed him an agent and several meetings with mid-level studio executives. This attracted [[20th Century Fox]] executives, who were interested in having Black rewrite scripts.[https://books.google.com/books?id=oPdHDYy_kWsC&pg=PA44 Million Dollar Babies], New York Magazine
9. ""I Like Violence" - Shane Black".
10. (January 1, 1989). "Close Call for Mel".
11. Saroyan, Strawberry. (May 1, 2005). "The end of a fade for Black".
12. (July 27, 1994). "HOLLYWOOD HABITS : Following the Script of a High-Stakes Movie Bidding War : New Line Cinema buys Shane Black's latest screenplay for a record $4 million. Here's how the deal was done.". Los Angeles Times.
13. "All Time Worldwide Box Office Results". [[Box Office Mojo]].
14. (June 12, 2014). "Ryan Gosling & Russell Crowe May Be 'Nice Guys' for Shane Black". firstshowing.net.
15. "Warner Bros In 'Nice Guys' Talks With Shane Black, Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling". [[Deadline Hollywood]].
16. "Russell Crowe-Ryan Gosling Pic 'The Nice Guys' Gets Summer 2016 Release Date". [[Deadline Hollywood]].
17. Chitwood, Adam. (June 25, 2014). "Exclusive: Shane Black Says His PREDATOR Film Is a Sequel, Not a Reboot". Collider.
18. Miska, Brad. (June 23, 2014). "Fred Dekker's 'Predator' Script Completed!". BD.
19. (February 13, 2018). "'The Predator,' 'Alita Battle Angel,' and 'Death on the Nile' Get New Release Dates". Slashfilm.
20. (September 6, 2018). "Twentieth Century Fox pulls scene from 'The Predator' after director Shane Black casts his friend, a registered sex offender". Los Angeles Times.
21. (September 11, 2018). "'Predator's Olivia Munn tells Ellen, 'I don't want this career' if it means staying quiet". USA Today.
22. Murphy, J. Kim. (2022-03-03). "Robert Downey Jr., Shane Black Reunite for Adaptation of Donald E. Westlake's 'Parker' Series at Amazon".
23. Siegel, Tatiana. (February 22, 2010). "Columbia revives Doc Savage". Variety.
24. "'Iron Man 3' Director Shane Black to Direct 'Doc Savage' for Sony".
25. Hellerman, Jason (March 12, 2020). [https://nofilmschool.com/shane-black-christmas#node-118136:~:text=What%20I%20love%20about%20Shane%20Black%2C,and%20they%20usually%20make%20us%20laugh. "Why Does Shane Black Layer Wit, Action, and Christmas in All His Scripts?"]. ''[[No Film School]]''.
26. Collis, Clark (May 25, 2016). [https://www.ew.com/article/2016/05/25/shane-black-christmas "''The Nice Guys'' director Shane Black explains his obsession with Christmas: 'It's just a thing of beauty'"]. ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]''.
27. "WordPlay: Column 23". Terry Rossio, 1997.
28. "Lethal Weapon, script". The Daily Script.
29. (2012). "Lethal Weapon Collection". Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
30. Delaney, Sam. (May 22, 2009). "Crash, bang, wallop what a picture". The Guardian.
31. Marvel]]''.
32. Guerra, Felipe M. (December 27, 2020). [https://medium.com/fan-fare/jingle-bang-the-christmas-action-films-written-by-shane-black-43def03bd166 "‘Jingle Bang!’: The Christmas Action Films Directed and/or Written by Shane Black"]. ''[[Medium (website). Medium]]''.
33. Variety Staff. (April 10, 1995). "Top helmers on 'Tales' team... Sky-high Sly price".
34. Billington, Alex. (September 23, 2008). "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang's Shane Black Directing Cold Warrior".
35. Every, Max. (January 12, 2018). "Shane Black Writing a Pilot Based on The Avengers TV Show".
36. Fletcher, Rosie. (July 19, 2013). "Marvel's Agent Carter reaction: Comic-Con 2013". TotalFilm.