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Question; Shane Black's original Play Dirty script for Lethal Weapon 2

posted 9 years ago by Nick7080
9 replies | jump to latest

(I also posted this on Lethal Weapon 2 board.)

I'm curious to find out was Shane Black's original script for Lethal Weapon 2 ever mentioned in some interview with him and is there some way to find it and read it. Unfortunately, only version of the script that's available to read online is November '88 draft which is written by other writers and other than opening and ending scenes it's mostly the same as final film.

I heard so much about Black's script over the years, and it really sounds like it's much better than the mess that final movie is. Don't get me wrong, i do like the film and it's only LW sequel i like, and while it's not as good as first film, it is still fun action film, but with some rather unnecessary things and uneven tone with constant changes between goofy comedy and dark action thriller. For fks sake, movie starts with Looney Tunes theme and in second half you have some darker scenes like police officers dying one after the other. And then there are some moments which really make no sense.

Instead of going into details about differences between Black's script and final film myself, here's the info about it from Trivia;

After first movie turned out to be huge hit, earning $120 million on the budget of $15 million, it was decided to make the sequel. Producer Joel Silver asked writer of the first film Shane Black to write the script for the sequel, and Black agreed. Despite having some problems in his personal life, Black managed to write his first draft of the script in six months along with his friend, novelist Warren Murphy, co-creator of Remo Williams (the lead character of The Destroyer novels).

Although many people thought that their script was brilliant, Warner Bros studio and producers, including Silver, and director Richard Donner however disagreed with Black's decision to kill off Riggs' character in the ending, because they wanted to keep him alive for future sequels, and they also thought that Black and Murphy's script was way too bloody and dark, and they wanted a lighter, more comedic script, while their draft was completely serious and it focused more on courage and heroics, like Riggs coming full circle from the way he was in the first film and how his relationship with Murtaugh and his family brought him back to life and into the real world, helping him to let his guard down and learn to accept the love of real people, and in Black's version of the script it's the very love that makes Riggs willing to die to protect them.

Other parts from Black and Murphy's script which were changed or left out of the final version of the script include Leo Getz being only a minor character and having only one scene and few lines of dialogue. Lot more violence throughout like South African villains, who were even more vicious in original script than in the final film, torturing Shapiro, female police officer working with Riggs and Murtaugh (one who is killed by bomb in the pool in the film) to death in very nasty scene. There was also a scene where Riggs is tortured by South Africans in similar way like he was in the first film but much worse. Script also included an action sequence in which plane full of cocaine gets destroyed causing for cocaine to fall all over L.A like snow.

The ending of the script included climactic battle which took place at hills engulfed with big brush fire, and after destruction of stilt house Riggs chases Benedict (original name of the villain Pieter Vorstedt from the movie) who was different and lot more dangerous character in original script and Riggs' "arch-nemesis, his worst nightmare" as Black himself said, into the fire. After the final battle with Benedict Riggs dies very slowly after he gets stabbed by him. The last scene in Black's script was Murtaugh watching the video tape that Riggs made earlier since he had a premonition that he was going to die and in which he says his goodbye to Murtaugh.

Following the studio's negative reaction on his script and their demands for massive re-writes, Shane Black left the project after six months earning only $125,000 for his work (Warren Murphy also earned same amount), and never worked on any of the sequels. Black did said in later years in interviews how he considers his original script for Lethal Weapon 2 which was also called Play Dirty to be his best work and most intense script he has written, and how other than the scene where stilt house gets destroyed, his script was completely different than the one used for filming. He also said how the problem with final version of second movie was that they did too much comedy, and how he dislikes the other two sequels of the film because of the way they ruined Riggs' character.

Despite many attempts by fans of the Lethal Weapon movies and Shane Black, his original script for second film was never found and it remains highly demanded and most wanted of all Black's scripts.
Definitely sounds like something else. After reading Black's original script for The Last Boy Scout for example, i was surprised to see how at places it was more action packed and nastier than the film (which had its script changed by Bruce Willis and Joel Silver unfortunately), so i can see how original LW2 script would be much different after Black quit from the film.

Any thoughts or whatever, or if you know some way to find this script go right ahead. Hopefully someday soon it will be found, or at least fans will get to find out more about it.

Side note; Here's well done fan-made alternate ending for the film;
https://youtu.be/E8c-bH6WE2E

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[–] 5535 9 years ago

Cool!

Would be fun to read his version!

I can't say I disagree with Donner and the producers though, as they knew they had something special and wanted it to continue. While parts three and four weren't as good, I'm still glad we had more of Riggs and Murtaugh!

[–] Nick7080 9 years ago

After looking around, i managed to find interview with Shane Black in which he mentions how some time before the interview he read his original script for Lethal Weapon 2 and he said how it's the best script he has ever written. Here's the exact quote;

http://creativescreenwriting.com/i-like-violence/

It’s funny, because the capper to the story is I looked at the script again recently and it’s the best thing I ever wrote. There’s no question the draft of Lethal Weapon II that I wrote, death and all, is my best work. Head and shoulders, intensity wise, above a lot of the stuff I’ve done.
And that's just another big reason why i would love to read that script. Come on guys, can't somebody ask Black to like copy the script and share it with his fans, just so that we all can finally read it for ourselves and see is it really that good? Almost all of the other scripts that he wrote are widely available, from his first script Shadow Company to his newest film Nice Guys, and even his re-writes for The Last Action Hero can be found, but what the man himself says is his best work is not available anywhere?

Reading up online on other message boards, some fan or fans tried to search the script in some script library but they could never find it, so it looks like Black himself might be the only person who can provide copy of it.

I can only imagine how different his script would be. Like it's been mentioned, apparently the stilt house destruction is only part in the final film that's left from his script. And after reading his original drafts of Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout and Long Kiss Goodnight, i can see how darker his LW 2 script would be.

[–] Hanfrodo (1) 6 years ago

I'm betting being they paid Black for the script he hasn't the rights to post it publically. But if it accidentally found its way that might work mr black.

[–] HBaldursson 9 years ago

If there was ever a great reason to remake a movie, this is one.

[–] Nick7080 9 years ago

i know shane is/was bitter about what happened to the franchise.

And i don't blame him. I like first two LW films but i think that Richard Donner was wrong choice for the director. Black's script for first film was pretty much the same as final film but it had darker tone and action scenes were written to be much better and IMO much more intense, and violence was also more graphic in the script. They should have known that they made mistake hiring Donner when he hired Jeffrey Boam to re-write parts of the script and add more humor, just because he was the only one who didn't like how dark the script was.

but i hope someday he will release this draft for the fans. so that the real fans can enjoy it, since it never got made and there's no point to hide it anymore.

i mean, it's been 25 years + since the sequel came out. yikes!
Lately lot of the people have been looking for Black's Play Dirty/LW 2 draft, and i read couple reports from people who came very close to finding it, and they said how even the small bits of info they heard sounded like the script was indeed something special. And of course, that makes the rest of us even more pissed off that it can't be found.

what could it possibly hirt to release it at this point? unless there was some sort of contract detail prohibiting it ever seeing the light of day.

hmmm, that may be it. shane may not even own it, so maybe he CANT show it to us
I heard that some Warner Bros. scripts were removed from online web sites for legal reasons, but i'm not so sure that in this case there is some contract problem. Black and Warren Murphy (novelist who helped him to write the script) earned $250,000 for it, even though it wasn't used, and i never heard that they were told not to release the script or do anything else with it. And couple of Black's different drafts for first Lethal Weapon are still online, available to read for free. So i don't see why Black couldn't release it. I still hope for some fans to ask him on sites like Twitter or Facebook can he share the script, at least he could respond with Yes or No.

[–] 5535 9 years ago

[–] Nick7080 9 years ago

From my view, Richard Donner was an excellent perfect choice for the Lethal Weapon series, and there was plenty of dark content in each movie. Donner was not soft in any way with this series.
You're not the first i hear that from but personally? I don't know about that, and going from what the fans think about third and fourth film, i think it's safe to say i'm not only one. Donner did a solid job as a director but while first two films definitely had moments where things went dark, third and fourth movie, in my opinion at least, are completely watered down. Part 2 had its moments of comedy that were O.K, but like Black himself said there was just too much comedy in that sequel, and all because Donner is the type of guy who likes laughs more than he likes brutality of action scenes. And third movie just went all the way into comedy with almost completely different ways Riggs and Murtaugh were written.

The way i see it, and i'm not expecting anyone to agree with me on this one, they went from two experienced police professionals and war veterans dealing with criminals in brutal ways and only sometimes cracking a joke which is how even real life cops would do, to them just being typical buddy-buddy bickering couple who spend more time arguing or talking about sht that has no connection with the case they're working on. And i'm sorry, but despite having some good bits of action fourth film is the worst of the bunch. It just went straight to damn soap opera with some plot parts like Rianne and Lorna being pregnant and Riggs in that movie is not a Riggs that these films should have. Maybe if they used Jeffrey Boam's script which had Riggs and Murtaugh fighting against neo-nazis there at least would be something lot more serious for them to deal with.

Again, i am not saying third and fourth films are awful and some of the worst films ever. Third film at least has solid pace and action which is in my opinion only reason to watch it. But bringing in love interest for Riggs was already a big mistake in second film and it is also a big mistake in third film, it just seems they wanted to make it to be like a usual action film where main hero has to have a girl, and if she is a tough like he is, probably more audience will like the film and make it more of a success. And having character like Leo who already had enough and even too much screen time in previous film basically pushed into the film (which is exactly how he ended up in the film because he wasn't in the original script) is another way of making it into usual action comedy.

Let's put third and fourth movie aside and get back to first two. I read two different drafts of first Lethal Weapon and i can honestly say that if i were given a choice to choose director for the film just based on that script, i would never hire someone like Donner. If you read Shane Black's LW script, it's obvious that this is meant to be an action thriller with some humor here and there, and it's also a story that i can't see someone like Donner being involved in to bring it to screen. Yes there are still some dark moments in final film but Donner obviously didn't like the amount of violence in the script and how dark it was. For example, it was his decision to remove two original opening scenes for Riggs because he found them to be exactly that, too dark. One in which he beats up two guys in bar while he is drinking and they try to rob him and one in which he kills a sniper who is shooting at kids. Even those deleted scenes were much softer than how they were written, like in the script Riggs beats up the two guys lot more severe and in the sniper scene one kid actually gets killed by the guy.

I think that if they had director like Tony Scott to direct the first and specially the second film but working with Black's original scripts both films would have been much better. But sadly, Scott was busy with rather poor sequel Beverly Hills Cop 2 in '87 and also had to deal with nose full of cocaine and mouth full of Brigitte Nielsen's pussy, so i can't blame him for doing such a bad job with that film. Poor direction and editing aside, the story of that film is so badly written that i think it was only money (and cocaine) that made everyone involved in the film willing to work on it.

Luckily Tony did direct another film based on Black's script, The Last Boy Scout, but thanks to pair of asholes going by the names of Bruce Willis and Joel Silver, even that film did not end up what it was supposed to be. In fact i think that besides Lethal Weapon, Long Kiss Goodnight is only film that was made to be as close as possible to his scripts, even though LKG was also toned down, again just like Black's other scripts losing much more of a darker and more graphic parts like scene where Charly and Mitch are tortured or two of them telling each other their really fkd up backstories.

But i'll say, even though i'm sure he never intended on using it, i'll give Donner props for actually thinking about killing Riggs in the ending of final version of Lethal Weapon 2, going so far that he did filmed the version of the ending in which Riggs does die after getting shot to sht, but apparently that was "just in case" ending if test audience didn't liked the film.

To end this long as fk reply, i'll say that with all the problems it has, i think that the second half of Lethal Weapon 2 is probably very close to Black's original script, considering how it suddenly goes from lot of laughs to scenes where police officers are being killed one after the other and Riggs and Murtaugh are forced to handle things in different, illegal way. That being said, that's another mistake that the third film has. Why are they still cops and not in jail? Even though they were in danger and their friends were killed, they still went against the law and killed bunch of people who were protected by diplomatic immunity, you could even say that Murtaugh kills unarmed civilian in the end. I guess even that was better explained in Black's script which i hope one day we will get and read it for ourselves, because i'm sure that its original title was far more appropriate with plot like that.

Play Dirty.