Lethal Weapon 30!
The buddy movie genre originated in Hollywood back in the 30s of the last century, but it gained particular popularity among many moviegoers only half a century later thanks to the creators of such action films as "48 Hours", "Policeman from Beverly Hills", "Catch before midnight "And" Tango and Cash ". This list would not be complete without mentioning another iconic action from the 80s. We are talking, of course, about Richard Donner's film " Lethal Weapon ", which premiered on March 6, 1987.Thirty years ago, the creators of the story about policemen Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh managed to come up with the formula for an ideal film about the friendship of two dissimilar partners. The picture was able to amaze the audience with an intriguing plot, the perfect combination of drama and humor, exciting fights and shootings, impressive stunts and a great acting duet Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. After the film earned more than ten times its $ 15 million budget at the box office and received a Oscar nomination for Best Sound, it became apparent that Donner, Gibson , Glover and screenwriter Shane Black have booked seats in the Action Hall of Fame. Today " Lethal Weapon " rightfully bears the title of one of the most famous film series in history. From 1987 to 1998, four parts of the franchise were released, grossing more than $ 955 million . The story of Los Angeles cops has not lost its relevance in the 21st century: last year, a television remake of " Lethal Weapon " debuted on small screens. which has already won the love of the audience and received an extension for a second season. LostFilm.INFO brings to your attention the most interesting facts about the creation of the famous action movie of 1987, celebrating its 30th anniversary today.  Shane Black was only 23 years old when he wrote a draft of Lethal Weapon . In those days, he gave priority to an acting career, and he called working on scripts just his hobby. Black 's first attempt at being a storyteller was not very successful. His supernatural thriller " The Shadow Firm " sparked interest in Hollywood, but in the end, none of the studios dared to start collaborating with the young and little-known author. The failure seriously affected Shane 's confidence in her abilities. He wrote the first version of the script for " Lethal Weapon " in just six weeks. When Black decided to re-read his manuscript, it seemed so weak to him that he chose to send it to the trash can. The first version of the script contained many large-scale action scenes, for the implementation of which the bosses of Hollywood film companies would have to fork out tens of millions of dollars. At the end of the film, Mr. Joshua had to shoot down a police helicopter with a rocket launcher. It was planned that the aircraft would fall into the Hollywood Hills and ignite the famous Hollywood sign. The next scene was the explosion of a truck with weapons and drugs, after which the burning Los Angeles landmark was supposed to be covered with a cloud of heroin. The rest of the pages of that version of the script were just as crazy - Riggs used ninja stars, tortured his enemies and with his bare hands deprived Mr. Joshua of his eyes. The film was supposed to be about 140 minutes long, as the scenes from Murtaugh and Riggs of their service in Vietnam played an important role in its plot.  Black 's acting career was stalled, because of what he had to share an apartment with four friends. Although the aspiring screenwriter was unhappy with the first draft of the text, he decided to give Lethal Weapon another chance. Shane significantly reworked the plot of the film and sent a new version of the script to the bosses of the leading American film studios. His lyrics drew interest from renowned producer Joel Silver and vice president of Warner Bros. Studio Mark Canton. The deal between the Hollywood major and the screenwriter was closed in just three days. For his text Black received a fee, fantastic for those times - $ 250 thousand . Another $ 150K in the form of bonuses Shane earned after Initially, the studio WB wanted to invite Leonard Nimoy to the director's chair, who showed good talent as a director when working on the films Star Trek 3: Finding Spock and Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home. However, at that time he was busy on the set of the comedy "Three Men and a Baby", which is why the bosses of the film company decided to look closely at the candidacy of Richard Donner .  Although the director's track record has already included such famous films as "The Omen", "Superman" and "Goonies", many moviegoers took the news of his appointment to the post of director of " Lethal Weapon " with a fair amount of skepticism ... “I didn't have a lot of action experience back then, recalls Donner . -In the early 80s, I was constantly invited to shoot action films, but in most scenarios I found nothing but endless chases and shootings. " Lethal Weapon " stood out against these projects because at the center of the story of Shane Black were really interesting heroes. " Although Donner liked the main characters in the film, he found Black's script overly dark and depressing. The director convinced the studio management to bring in Jeffrey Bowm to finalize the lyrics, thanks to which " Lethal Weapon " acquired many of the comedic scenes. A couple of years later, WB had to ask Bome to rewrite the script for the next installment of the series when it was revealed that in its finale, Black was going to kill Martin Riggs.  Curiously, Lethal Weapon could have a completely different opening scene. In one of the early versions of the script, the story began in a bar, where a pretty drunk Riggs had to get into a fight with two hooligans. In another version of the text, the film opened with Martin walking along the beach, during which he bumped into a group of drunks bullying a dog. Riggs had to lean over to the dog, and then tell the flayers that he asked him to teach them a lesson. After the reprisal against rivals, the former special forces soldier had to take his new four-legged friend to his trailer on the ocean shore. It seemed to Richard Donner that each of these two scenes was capable of turning many viewers against Riggs from the very first seconds of the film. As a result, the creators of " Lethal Weapon " decided that the public's acquaintance with Martin should go in a more positive way.  Bruce Willis was considered one of the main contenders for the role of Riggs , but Donner decided to give preference to Mel Gibson . A year later, the actors again became rivals in the struggle for participation in the filming of Die Hard. In 1991, viewers had the opportunity to look at a kind of crossover of two famous franchises: Willis appeared on the screens in a short but memorable fragment of the parody comedy Loaded Weapon, in which one of the most spectacular scenes of Lethal Weapon was played 2 ".  The idea to invite to the role of Murtaugh Danny Glover came from casting expert Marion Dougherty, who first drew attention to the actor back in the 70s, when he was just starting his career in big cinema. “ Marion said to me,“ Have you seen Steven Spielberg's Purple Field Flowers? Why don't we consider Danny Glover ? ”Recalls Donner . -Although the script did not specify Roger's skin color , for some reason I imagined him to be white. Luckily, I was quick to figure out how brilliant it was to make Murtaugh African American. " The studio decided to see how convincing Glover and Gibson would look in a duo. Danny had to come to Los Angeles from Chicago, where he took part in a theatrical production. Mal actually made an intercontinental flight, as a call from the WB bosses found him in Sydney. It soon became clear that a year earlier, the actors' paths had already crossed at the Venice Film Festival. “At the time, I was already a big fan of Mel ,” admitted Glover . -I remember after watching the movie “ Gallipoli ”, I said: “Yes, I would like to work with this guy”. After a while, I heard about Mel a lot of warm words from the dialect coach, with whom I collaborated to prepare for the role in the tape " Flowers in purple fields ". And then Gibson and I crossed paths by accident in Venice. I went there with the Western "Silverado", and he was involved in the promotional campaign for the movie "Mad Max 3: Under the Dome of Thunder." As befits in such cases, we said to each other: "It will be nice to film together one day." Who would have thought that after a year, fate would really give us a chance to play in one movie”. Under the dome of thunder. " As befits in such cases, we said to each other: "It will be nice to film together one day." Who would have thought that after a year, fate would really give us a chance to play in one film”. Under the dome of thunder. " As befits in such cases, we said to each other: "It will be nice to film together one day." Who would have thought that after a year, fate would really give us a chance to play in one film”.  “It took us only two hours to pre-read the script, said Donner . -I was in seventh heaven. These guys immediately understood the characters of their characters. They found humor in those scenes where I saw little to laugh. Elsewhere in the script, they managed to find subtle dramatic notes. But the main thing is that in such a short period of time they turned out to be just an excellent duet”. The actors signed contracts with the studio in the early spring of 1986, after which they were sent to physical training courses. Under the guidance of stuntman Bobby Bass, Gibson and Glover have gained impressive muscle mass and learned how to shoot different types of weapons. To give the stars of the film an opportunity to learn the basic methods of detective work, the studio hired active officers of the Los Angeles Police Department as technical consultants.  The friendship between Murtaugh and Riggs would hardly have looked so believable if Glover and Gibson had not become good friends in real life life. “Cops always have a special relationship, noted Mel . - Danny and I went on calls several times with the police patrol in preparation for filming. We made sure that a real partner is always ready to cover a friend's back. In this regard, our professions are a bit similar. I was lucky that Danny turned out to be not only a great actor, but also surprisingly pleasant person to talk to. We quickly found a common language”. Great credit for the success of the film belongs to the actor Gary Busey, who created the image of a very colorful antagonist. “I was eager to star in ' Lethal Weapon , - the actor admitted. -I wanted to work with Donner , Gibson and Glover because I was confident that in this company I could show my best the game. The problem was that in those days, no one associated me with the image of the bad guy. I was so eager to play in this film that I lost twenty pounds and let the make-up artists bleach their hair. "  Gary chose a very non-trivial way to get used to the role of the villain. "I always try to come up with some backstories for my characters," said Busey . -I decided that Mr. Joshua would be the kind of guy who would calmly step over his grandma's corpse if they urgently need to find a postage stamp. It is for this reason that my hero from “ Lethal Weapon ” has a dead shark gaze”. Richard Donner wanted the fight between Riggs and Joshua in the film's finale to compare favorably with the usual movie fights. Fortunately for the director, one of his assistants turned out to be a great connoisseur of martial arts. He arranged for Donner to meet with experts in several martial arts at once. Richard was so impressed by their presentations that he decided to involve all these martial artists in the work on the film at once. As a result, Gibson and Busey had to learn martial arts such as capoeira, taekwondo and jiu-jitsu. “We thought there was no better way to show how Riggs is dangerous in a fight than to create a unique fighting style for him,  Attentive viewers must have noticed a very unexpected appearance of the helicopter during the final battle scene. The fierce battle took four days to complete, resulting in Donner having many takes on his hands. The slenderness of the frames in the film suffered somewhat due to the fact that the director decided to give the fight of Riggs and Joshua more dynamism. As a result, about four minutes were cut out of it on the timeline. To the disappointment of many fans of the film series, the timing of this fragment was never restored in the director's cut. Work on the interior scenes took place in the pavilions of Burbank Studios , and for shooting on location, the action team used many picturesque California locations. The filming period for the film was completed in mid-November 1986. Since the ending of the tape was supposed to create a sense of celebration for the audience, its creators turned to the Los Angeles authorities with a request to hang traditional Christmas decorations on some streets of the city a couple of weeks ahead of schedule.  The creators of the franchise have always managed to balance remarkably well on the edge of comedy and drama. One of the most emotional parts of the first film in the series was Riggs attempting to commit suicide. “We were eager to start working on this scene several times, but Mel was not ready for it for a long time, - said Donner . -Every evening I pestered him with the words: "Maybe we will try today," but he still refused. After a couple of weeks, he himself came up to me and said that he was finally ready to try. The problem was that on that day I already had time to let half of the crew go home”. “If we used multiple cameras to shoot the action, then during this scene only one lens was pointed at Mel , - recalls cameraman Stephen Goldblatt. -We also tried to do with the minimum number of crew members so as not to interfere with Gibson getting used to the character. His performance in this scene caught our imagination. Each of us was able to feel the mental suffering and heartache Riggs ". “I turned to Stephen and saw that he had tears in his eyes, added Donner . -What can I hide, I myself could not contain my emotions. When Mel hit himself in the head with a gun, I began to seriously worry about his health. But we gave him the opportunity to play this scene the way he wanted”.  To be as convincing as possible in this scene, Gibson decided to use not a dummy weapon, but a real Beretta 92F pistol. Moreover, the actor insisted that a real bullet be in the chamber all the time during filming. The brilliant work on an incredibly complex scene helped Gibson in his future career. According to Italian filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli, it was this passage from " Lethal Weapon " that finally convinced him that he should be entrusted to Mel as the titular character in Hamlet. Many directors are rather clumsy in inserting product advertisements into their films, but Richard Donner has managed to approach product placement with a fair amount of creativity. A few months after the premiere of " Lethal Weapon ", the horror film "The Lost Boys" was to be released, in the creation of which the Hollywood filmmaker performed the production functions. Donner thought he could use additional advertising for Joel Schumacher's tape. In one of the scenes " Lethal Weapon ", behind Riggs and Murtaugh , you can see a cinema with a sign “” The Lost Boys b>”: hit this season”.  At the same time, Donner used " Lethal Weapon " not only to advertise his production project, but also to leave a very important message for moviegoers. On the refrigerator in the house of Murtaugh , you can see a sticker that reads “Free South Africa, Stop Apartheid”. “In my opinion, there is nothing better than making a great entertaining film and leaving an important message in it, - said the director. -Unfortunately, more often than not everything happens the other way around. People shoot important social projects and then start to turn them into entertainment films”. Although Donner began to receive threatening letters shortly after the film's release, the director was not afraid to bring up apartheid in the second film in the series.  Fighters of the 80s are especially fond of the audience, because to create dizzying stunts, their creators had to resort not to the help of computer graphics experts, but to their own imaginations. Richard Donner wanted the fall of Amanda Hunsaker during the opening scene of the film to be as realistic as possible. The use of a stunt double could catch the eyes of the audience, and therefore the director decided to convince Jackie Swanson to perform this difficult trick on his own. Today such a scene would have been filmed using a green screen, but then the filmmakers had to find another way to ensure the safety of the actress. The Lethal Weapon team photographed the street from a bird's eye view, and then printed it on a huge canvas. Then the stunt coordinators made a kind of fire trampoline out of it, which was supposed to soften the fall of the actress. Swanson underwent several training sessions under the guidance of legendary stuntman Dar Robinson, after which the film crew was finally convinced that they were able to perform the stunt without the help of a stunt double. As a result, Donner got a very impressive scene in which he changed the frame at the moment of the collision of Hunsaker 's body with a car. got a very impressive scene in which he changed the frame at the moment of the collision of the body of Hunsaker with a car. got a very impressive scene in which he changed the frame at the moment of the collision of the body of Hunsaker with a car.  A few months before the release of the tape, Dar Robinson died in a motorcycle accident. The Lethal Weapon team decided to dedicate a film to his memory. The picture could get not only a different opening scene, but also a completely different ending. Having survived the final battle with the criminals, Riggs and Murtaugh had to say goodbye near the police station and disperse in different directions. The film's production team did not give much thought to the prospects for a franchise, but fortunately for moviegoers, the studio bosses stepped in. They decided to change the ending of the film so that the audience had an irresistible desire to see the continuation of the story of the brave guardians of order. As a result, " Lethal Weapon " ended the scene in which Murtaugh decides to invite Riggs to Christmas dinner. 
The Topic of Article: Lethal Weapon 30!. |
