Before he directed the blockbuster hit “Iron Man 3,” writer/director Shane Black first burst onto the scene as the creator of the “Lethal Weapon” franchise, writing the first movie solo, sharing screenplay credit on “Lethal Weapon 2” and receiving “based on characters created by Shane Black” credits on the other movies in the series. Following the success of “Lethal Weapon,” Shane became one of the hottest writers in town and became one of the first screenwriters to earn multi-million-dollar fees for his screenplays, including “The Last Boyscout,” “Last Action Hero” and “Long Kiss Goodnight.”
As a writer, he’s always in demand as an uncredited script doctor and as a speaker at events like the Austin Film Festival. He made his directorial debut in 2005 with the critically acclaimed thriller “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.”
“Lethal Weapon” broke new ground as an incredibly dark buddy picture featuring a by the book cop looking forward to his retirement getting teamed up against his will with a lunatic, suicidal cop who takes all sorts of dangerous chances because he just doesn’t care anymore.
For Shane, in many ways “Lethal Weapon” was a throwback to an old-fashioned Western with Briggs, the Mel Gibson character, portrayed as an outcast gunslinger. In this clip, Shane elaborates on how he created the Briggs character.
