Lethal Weapon Codexery

Lethal Weapon 2

Sequel to the 1987 buddy cop film.

The scene outside this house, where Riggs grabs a truck, was filmed on March 21, 1989.[1][2] The house is part of a sequence that includes a surfboard killing a driver.[1]

Quick Facts

Director
Richard Donner
Screenplay
Jeffrey Boam
Story
Shane Black; Warren Murphy
Based on
Characters, Shane Black
Starring
  • Mel Gibson
  • Danny Glover
  • Joe Pesci
  • Joss Ackland
  • Derrick O'Connor
  • Patsy Kensit
Cinematography
Stephen Goldblatt
Editing
Stuart Baird
Producer
Richard Donner; Joel Silver

Facts from the source article.

How it changed

The studio, Silver, and director Richard Donner rejected this draft for being too dark and bloody.[3] They wanted more comedy, while Black's draft focused on courage and heroics.[3] Jeffrey Boam rewrote the script, mixing a hard-boiled action draft with a comedic one.[4][5] Boam had to rewrite many times during production because Donner demanded changes.[5]

Robert Mark Kamen added all the parts with South African villains during uncredited rewrites.[6] The final film was shot with two possible endings, one where Riggs dies and one where he lives.[7] The script that Shane Black and Warren Murphy wrote was rejected by the producer, the studio, and the director because it was considered excessively dark and bloody, and because Riggs dies at the end.[3] Black later referred to his rejected script as "the best thing I ever wrote".[8]

What the maker and period sources say

Silver stated that most of the story and setup for Lethal Weapon 2 was Black's.[9] Boam noted that the summer of 1989 saw both "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" and "Lethal Weapon 2" in theaters.[10] The 1995 interview with Boam revealed he wrote an unused draft for the fourth film involving a neo-Nazi militia.[5][11] Black began developing "The Last Boy Scout" after being somewhat sidelined during work on the sequel.[9]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Lethal Weapon 2" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Niemann, "Palm Springs Legends: creation of a desert oasis", Sunbelt Publications, 2006, p. 286 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Open Library record, ISBN 9780932653741 ("Palm Springs legends"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Lethal Weapon 2" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Saroyan, "The end of a fade for Black", Los Angeles Times, 1 May 2005; "Lethal Weapon II", Theplaylist.net, 21 May 2016 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Lethal Weapon 2" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Deans, Laurie (January 13, 1989). "LA CLIPS Lethal Weapon II script defused". The Globe and Mail. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Lethal Weapon 2" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Exclusive Interview: The Last Crusade of Screenwriter Jeffrey Boam Assignment X", Assignmentx.com, 2 May 2013; "Two Summer Blockbusters, One Busy Screenwriter a scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Murray Close)-going for glib", The New York Times, 6 August 1989; "The Occasional Critic: The Jeffrey Boam interview, 1992", Theoccasionalcritic.blogspot.mx, 2009-09-24; "The Occasional Critic: Jeffrey Boam interview, June 1995", Theoccasionalcritic.blogspot.mx, 2009-09-30; The Gross: The Hits, The Flops: The Summer That Ate Hollyw en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Lethal Weapon 2" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Not a Sequel: Robert Mark Kamen on Taken 2, Bloodsport and Karate Kid", CraveOnline.com, 2012-10-08 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Lethal Weapon 2" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lethal Weapon 2, Director Richard Donner's Blu-Ray commentary (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Lethal Weapon 2" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Shane Black, Empire Magazine interview; "The problem was that with Lethal Weapon 2 they did a lot of comedy. My draft had one scene with Joe Pesci's guy. He had; "Close Call for Mel", Los Angeles Times, 1 January 1989; "Lethal Weapon II", Creativescreenwriting.com; Saroyan, "The end of a fade for Black", Los Angeles Times, 1 May 2005; Deans, Laurie (January 13, 1989). "LA CLIPS Lethal Weapon II script defused". The Globe and Mail.; "Lethal Weapon II", Theplaylist.net, 9 June 2016 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. "Lethal Weapon II", Theplaylist.net, 9 June 2016. facts only, no text reused. theplaylist.net
  10. "The Occasional Critic: The Jeffrey Boam interview, 1992", Theoccasionalcritic.blogspot.mx, 2009-09-24. facts only, no text reused. theoccasionalcritic.blogspot.mx
  11. "The Occasional Critic: Jeffrey Boam interview, June 1995", Theoccasionalcritic.blogspot.mx, 2009-09-30. facts only, no text reused. theoccasionalcritic.blogspot.mx

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Lethal Weapon 2 (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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