Shane Black
Shane Black
Shane Black is an American screenwriter, director, producer and actor. He wrote the 1987 action movie hit Lethal Weapon, and made his directorial debut with the film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005. His acting credits include appearing in the original Predator film, for which he is currently set to write and direct in the next installment...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth16 December 1961
CityPittsburgh, PA
CountryUnited States of America
You can win more arguments then you might think as a writer, even though you legally have no recourse, and your script can get muddied and altered in any way possible. You can use reason, logic, and passion to argue persuasively for a case in your favor.
I hate 'The Professional.' It's one of the worst action/adventure movies ever made.
He's not Mel Gibson, he's not Val Kilmer, and he's certainly not Damon Wayans. He's actually the cool-headed one.
I could direct it and steer it, but I just wanted to see what comes of that.
Depending on how much you like these guys, you may want to take another trip with them. It's certainly fun to write about these characters.
Don't worry. I saw 'Lord of the Rings'; I'm not gonna have the movie end 20 times.
I felt like we were taking a bit of a chance, ... Val has his own reputation, but as soon as we got going I was like, 'Why didn't anyone think of teaming these guys up together before?'
You have to keep surprising your audience.
The worst of the action films are the ones where everything is one shout from beginning to finish. And there's no differentiation between beats, like small or big, or quiet or expansive. It's all just one loud shout.
Here's what I didn't know when I was starting out that I now know…I thought when you were starting out it was really hard to write because you hadn't broken in yet, you hadn't really hit your stride yet. What I found out paradoxically is that the next script you write doesn't get easier because you wrote one before…each one gets harder by a factor of 10.
I'll say, what makes me happy about making movies is, every once in a while through movies we find a kind of honesty. There's an honesty in fiction that's as effective or even more powerful than the honesty of our lives. We can find something that's genuinely true, like a chemistry between people or a statement that speaks to an audience.
Probably my favorite piece of music, as an album taken as a whole, is Bruce Springsteen's 'Greetings from Asbury Park.' I just think it's incredibly pure. It's a sound that sort of broke new ground, and I think it paved the way for a hundred people that sound very similar.
I've turned down lots and lots of work. Things that could have made me some money.
Directing comes closer than anything I’ve found yet to providing me with a good reason to get up in the morning that goes beyond just getting some money. Because all the money does is buy the bed. Getting out of it is the problem.