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Hello, and welcome to see you at the Potty Richter. My name is Chris Chapman, and joining me as always are my co hosts Aaron Frescus Hello, and Joseph beck Castro, Hello, QT Pies. And joining us once again this week is Erica Shasky Hello, and she is joining us to cover Arnold's nineteen ninety three satire.
Vehicle fantasy Action Yeah, Hicle Car Truck Fair. Anyway, Last Action Hero came out in nineteen ninety three, and we're going to continue talking about it today.
So Aaron talk, Okay, that's a good intro. Okay. So we were on them trying to find a director and then offering it to John McTiernan, and I read you guys a quote that mcchernan gave to The New York Times in nineteen ninety three saying basically that he passed on the film because the original script was quote wasn't very good. It wasn't challenging or fascinating, It didn't have
a spark. And then we talked about Paul Verhovean and Arnold trying to find funding for a Crusade but it falling through because Rahoven's fucking crazy.
Yeah right.
Oh, I had one last thing I forgot to add about Crusade. Like as far as Crusade, so I mentioned that Schwarzenegger and Verhoven were talking to Kralco like Slash Mario Kassar about funding, but Cralco decided against it because they were just broke as fuck. Yeah. Well, according to that Fiasco book, I guess it was Mario Kassar and Carlco that originally owned the rights to the film, which was surprising to me because I found articles about Arnold still trying to get a movie made in like nineteen
ninety nine, but Kralco went bankrupt in ninety five. So I just assumed that either Arnold, like either one of them like Arnold Verhoven, had always on the rights and they just brought it to Carolco to try to get funding for it.
Yeah.
Yeah, but no, apparently even though Kralco was literally maybe like maybe one box office bomb away from bankruptcy, it definitely didn't stop Mario Kassar from making a fifteen million dollar deal with Arnold A Star and Crusade. And it wasn't like some boring, like regular old deal and that it was a they agreed to a pay or play deal. You do we know what that is? No, No, okay, So basically Kralco agreed to pay Arnold fifteen million dollars
regardless if the movie gets made or not. So the pay or play, which normally wouldn't be a big deal because it's pretty common, like a common contract clause in Hollywood, especially with dealing with like a list talent, which Arnold was at the time. But Krolco was basically like hanging
on a thread at this point. So like they were so bad with money that even though they co produced Terminator two in ninety one, which made half a billion dollars, these motherfuckers still somehow managed to lose ninety one million dollars that same year.
Christ Yeah, I mean how much of that.
Is well, what you got out of it completely?
Yeah, yeah, that was just more of a question of how much of that was Hollywood accounting, you know, Oh, because in theory, no film ever makes a profit.
Yep, it was.
There their studio.
That's because of the studio. Yeah, yeah, So it's.
It's movies can lose money, and it's all like it's good for the studio, But if the studio is losing money, that's bad.
Yeah. So they were getting investigated by the IRS at this time too, and it I'm not sure what like what happened with it, but they owed money, and Mario Cassart is just really bad with money. And it's definitely Mario Kasar because the Andrew the Vegeter was out by this time, Andrew Vaginer was already like he sold his I think before termat or two. Actually I believe really yeah, I mean that wasn't the worst decision because they still
were still ninety one million dollars. And then I looked up the other movies that they did because I was like, okay, well maybe they had like a huge bomb, but no, it was uh the Punisher, like the Adulph lungerin one. Sure I thought I wrote them down, but apparently I didn't. And there was like there was like four others, but uh.
Was that one based on the comic? Yes, yeah, okay, I haven't seen that one.
I remember it being on all the time, but I don't. You don't remember anything from it anyway.
Remember when like how like book movies are just absolute dog shit and then they became like kind of good in like the late nineties, you know, Blade and X Men and early Odds, and then they kind of went back to like not absolute dog shit, but just like catch.
But we started making so many of them that it's hard not to make like half of them dog shit.
Yeah, like Daredevil, Oh my god, what a shit show that one. It's funny. I was talking to somebody in their mid twenties. He was like, yeah, I remember when comic book movies were good, like when I was like growing up, they were all like good. I was like, God, damn fucking children. Christ. Okay, Yeah, anyways, I'm sorry to sidetrack thing.
Okay, so I just looked.
Sorry.
The nineteen ninety one they did La Story, which I think was Steve Martin, which I remember looking up. It didn't lose money, probably did, but the Doors which didn't. Again didn't like lose money. The Punisher and then the rest of Terminator too, that's true, but it was definitely. Marcus Arnim was something about like he's just it's like a lavish lifestyle thing. And then they would make dumb deals with like their stars, like this is the second
time like that. They made a deal with Schwarzenegger before what was it? What was it with the Terminator three?
Like they didn't actually have the rights? Yeah, and they signed like they.
Oh no, no, they no, they got funding from different places, like two different studios before they signed Schwarzenegger, but they already guarantee that he would do it. Yeah. Yeah, So so.
Has there been talk about cocaine with this guy? Because that's kind of what all you're telling me of, just like these bad deals, super hyped up and fucking just doing a bunch of But let's fucking do it, man, Let's just fucking do it.
And there's a between the lines joke here that I'm trying.
To come up with, uh snort, between the lines.
Yeah, I don't know, but yeah, I'm just saying there's cocaine sprinkled all throughout the story, but if it's not explicitly.
So yeah, okay. Yeah. So basically, once Mario Kassar realized that Crusade could potentially cost more than the original proposed budget, he backed out of that deal. And I'm assuming that Arnold just I think he just really wanted to make the movie, so he agreed to the film rights in lieu of money, which I mean, sure, yeah, I go, well, worked out from Mario Caasar because it never got made. Yeah,
so the best part. The best part is that Caralco also had another movie in development at the time, but after realizing that Crusade would be the more expensive of the two films, Mario Cassar decided to back out of that deal and then make Cutthroat Island instead, which Rick, can I watch?
It's whatever, I don't know, It's really not that bad. It's like Romancing the Stonebak Pirates.
He ended up selling that, like right before they they went bankrupt. He ended up selling that. And he also had the rights to show Girl said he sold. So yeah, anyway to get back on track. As far as finding the director for a Last Section Hero, so six months after John mcteernan said no because that Zach penn Adam left draft of the script didn't like light his balls on fire, didn't have a spark or whatever it was.
He ended up telling the fucking New York Times. But yeah, so, six months after turning down the director job, Columbia sent mc tern in the newly rewritten Shane Black version of the script, which was now titled Last Action Hero, and apparently it had a spark that was missing from that pen Left version because he loved it, telling the New York Times in nineteen ninety three, quote, what drew me is the whack of sense of humor. Shane Black and
David are not brought. Shane had done enough service in the salt minds of action movies to ridicule them in an acid way. That script had so much venom that I loved it, unquote and quick question, Chris. We didn't end up finding the Shane Black version of the script, not.
The one well, yeah, not the one that's just Shane Black. We found the one that had been touched up by William Goldman.
Yeah, which ended up a little loose. You said, seemed like the shooting script, right.
Essentially, it seemed almost indistinguishable for the movie for from what I've read of it, like aside from maybe a few words here and there. Yeah, it's pretty damn close to the movie.
Okay. I was just curious if it was like that much better than the pen Left one, But.
I think I think the movie is that much better than the pen Left script.
So yeah, kind of uh so. John my Ternan signs on as director in July nineteen ninety two, and According to McTiernan, Arnold was about ready to sign on to Do Tooth Fairy when mcchernan called him up and told him not to commit until he read the rewritten Last Action Hero script because it's it's good. It's seriously good. You know. I'm sure the whole time during that called mcturney, which is going on and on about that's got some spark. You gotta read it. It's got spark. Don't sit down while
you're reading it, Arnold. It's got too much spark. It could blow your balls out of your butthole. Okay, that's not a direct quote, but I'm assuming that's it isn't talk. Hey, come on, johnmy.
NaN's more, I said, got deeper and deeper.
John's more like it's gonna blow your balls out of your buttle, like while smoking a cigarette.
Like it's like fucking Batman.
I feel like you're just doing Bruce Willis from Dieheard.
Gonna blow your balls out of your buttle.
Okay. So, uh, Arnold reads it, and while he agrees that script was good, he still felt there were a few elements of it that needed work. Before he agreed to sign on and for Columbia the sooner he signed on, the better because this was this was all like taking place in July of ninety two, and the studio needed to know whether or not Arnold was on board by at least August if they wanted the film to be ready for summer nineteen ninety three release. So they were
basically like, tell us what you want, will make it happen. Yeah. So, both Arnold and mccherney agreed that the third acts still need a little work, But Arnold's main issue was that the Shane the Black David script. The main issue with it was that the relationship between Danny and Jack Slater was kind of yeah, like there wasn't a whole lot of one.
I don't know, well, I don't know. I don't know when the Shane Black only script, I don't think.
It changed very much like that that the relationship between the dott Yeah then, but.
Yeah, and the Penn Left script, Like the Arnold character doesn't have enough personality to really have a relationship with Danny.
Okay, Yeah, I think they gave him a little bit more personality in the in the Shane Black script, but I don't know if they like did anything with their relationship I don't know, we got it. I'll try to find it. Yeah, but uh yeah, with Arnold ends up telling The New York Times about the script, about the uh the Shane Black script quote. They had created rhythm and a pace and staggering action scenes. What I felt was missing was the bond between this kid and his hero. Thankfully,
Arnold had a solution to fix all these problems. And not only that, but he also told Columbia that he was one hundred percent on board if they fulfilled his request. All they had to do was bring him the head of Robin Hood by the next four moon. Yeah. I don't know. Columbia have told him like, Robin Hood's not real man, which just like shock Arnold, who was like, wait, what about the Fox one? You know, their Disney movie? That's not real. Columbia didn't want to set him, so
they told Ronald no, no, that one's real. But he died back in the fourteenth century. Yeah, so Arnold gave it after they shot the movie. Yeah, romantics. So Arnold gave like a dramatic sigh, like a disciplined like shuffle of his feet. He's like, huh, all right, well, I guess you know then he told him like he'd do the movie if they hired William Goldman to do the rewrite of the script in order to add like some emotional depth. Yeah, stupid shit like that is why this takes me so long.
I was gonna ask well Worthy, right, I'm sure who I'm sure? Uh like to anyone listening, by the way, that the only thing that Arnold actually requested was the rewrite rewrite by William Goldman. He did not ask for the head of Robin Hood, to make that clear, because you can't ask for something that you already own, you know. He's like, I don't need the head, I want this heart.
I mean, what do you think that skull is? Actually?
Yeah, Okay, Arnold tells Columbia that he's in if they get William Goldman, who had done an uncredited script polish on the Twins script a few years prior, which I'm sure that I totally mentioned when we cover Twins, because there's no way I'd missed that during my ten minutes of fucking research that was doing anyway. So apparently Goldman was like one of the top script doctors for Hollywood. Yeah, because in addition to Twins, Oh really about him?
No, no, no, William Goldman has a very famous book on writing scripts. Yeah, I'm writing screenplays.
Yeah, yeah, I know. But yeah. So in addition to Twins, he also did uncredited rewrites for a few good Men, Indecent Proposal, and Dolores Claiborne, which I think is based on a Stephen King book.
That is correct.
Okay, Yeah, so there was also a rumor that William Goldman supposedly did rewrites on Goodwill Hunting as well, but he denied that being true. And I only mentioned that because when he was asked about the rumor that he worked on it, he pointed out that it's not your fault scene was like basically using that as proof of that, Like he's like, I write that, Like come on, like,
there's no way already do that write that bullshit? Yeah, well, he basically said, he's like, if you've been a therapy therapy, if you've been a therapy before, you know that that's not the way stuff works. Yeah, basically is what he said. But about therapy.
To be fair, that scene was like not a real therapy session like they had.
That's true, that's true. That would be your counter argument when he gives that excuse it wasn't.
Robin Williams wasn't doing therapy exactly. He wasn't getting his friend, his like adopted son.
That he was off the He was off the clock at that point, so that would technically be kind of therapy. The session hadn't started.
I called my therapist this week. Uh I basically I told her her job as thought prostitution, which luckily she thought that was funny.
What I don't even know what that means.
I mean, it's kind of a friend for hire.
So yes, that's what her job literally is. And luckily she thought it was funny, and she was like, I should change the name, like the description of my cards to thought worker. And I started laughing so hard.
But thought, yeah, yeah exactly.
It was like I should have held my tongue on that one.
This is quickly becoming a scientologist podcast. We're just joking around.
I watched are Laura and I watched Goodwill Hunting recently to be very a little drunk. But I don't know, watching it, like and knowing how old fucking Aflac and Mad Demon were, I was like, they're they're too young to write something this good.
I don't know that's exactly that was in his or not. It was like some big statement that was like he got asked at it like a like a he was doing a speaking engagement. I think that was one of the questions. But he that was one of the reasons that Daddy said. He's like, people are always saying that these there's no way these two wrote this. Yeah they there was someone else. And he said that, sorry, couldn't finish your finish what you're saying too.
Oh No, I was just gonna say, uh, I'm not saying those two couldn't write it. I'm just saying it's hard for me to imagine a bunch of twenty three year olds writing it. It doesn't matter who the fuck they are, you know, right.
That makes sure that makes more sense. Uh. He said that people are yeah, like they're there's pretty actors anyway, but uh he said that same did.
I'm just saying if he if he got paid, if he got paid to write that movie, he also probably got paid a lot of money to keep his fucking mouth shut.
So the Oscar, Yeah, he said that they Rob Reiner gave them like they showed the script to Rob Reiner and he there used to be which I read and I think I read in a cracked article, but there used to be a bunch of.
Like stuff about either the CIA or the FBI, like them trying to recruit uh, Matt Damon's character, which I who is I yeah, good Will, I think it's his name, and they were trying to recruit him, and Rob Renner told him to cut that, and they were still like hesitant about it, so he had them go talk to William Goldman and he was also like, yeah, you need to get rid of that. But otherwise, like focus on like the relationship stuff, like the you know, the William
Goldman stuff. That's what he said on the William Goldman.
Of it all.
I mean, as we've seen, like I think the joke back in the day was like I think even a family guy did this too, where it was like, you know, one of their ways scenes like imagin it. But those two are writ in this script together, and you know, Matt Damon's like I got to finish and afflex like hitting a bogs like right cool, you know, like Affleck
didn't do anything. But it turns out it's kind of the other way, like we've seen from fucking Affleck that guy can make a fucking movie like he absolutely argo it didn't he win. I know Ario won Best Picture, but he won Best Director for that, And like, uh, was it kill Baby Kills something like that? Yes, I was getting that and kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Kicks Like sounds like what fucking John Waters movie or whatever? Uh faster Pussycat Killed something like that?
Yeah?
Yeah, like by the fucking the town, Like, yeah, the boy knows how to fucking make movies. Like I think we just kind of underestimated and associal in the day.
Come on, I eat, it was.
That Gus fans ant. No, I don't think it was a good will hunting but I can't.
I don't know who it was, but it wasn't, I guess.
To bring it back to my original point, which already mentioned, I am not saying that those two could not rate that movie. I'm just very skeptical that too twenty three year olds could write that sort of thing.
Yeah, yeah, which, yeah, it makes sense just because like we're getting old enough to we're like, there's no way.
You know, you know, fucking dumb. I wasn't the time.
Wait, they probably are talking about Sure, I'm talking about jerking off all the time. Okay, whose music is better music talking about pitties? Wait? Shit, this is like the shit out right now? Okay, well scratch all that.
Yeah, well there's only what one reference to using a kesher's glove flat flat?
Yeah, come on. Yeah. So Goldman had a prety cell list of credited work as well. He wrote nineteen sixty nine's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which didn't watch as well as this nineteen seventy six movie I guess, I don't know. All the President's Men was one of those called the doc docu dramas. It's a bio bio historical drama, historical drama. Yeah, both of which won the Oscar won him and Oscar Or, which he won an
Oscar for both. I haven't seen Butch Cassidy, but I remember watching All the President's Men in high school and being bored. But I was also pretty dumb, and it was the nineties, and a the movie didn't start Jim Carrey, so like, like, pay attention to it.
Come on, it's all the President's Men. It's not all the presidents boobs, you know, are all the President's chicks?
Yeah? That was also like I'm like you didn't have a boobs and the Robert Redford Dustin Hoffman what okay anyway.
I mean deep throat cut your attention.
But aside from that, yeah, things just got interesting once.
Yeah. Where's Linda Lovelace.
That's a very old Yeah, that's a reference older than you.
Yeah, but okay. So Goldman also wrote two hit movies about about a decade later, one of which was adapted from his own novel, and then the other was based on a Stephen King book, and those were The Princess Bride in nineteen eighty seven, followed by Misery in nineteen ninety crep. I just realized I should have probably should have looked up which ones was is Stephen King book? But uh well, having watched two, I would say the Prince Spread, Yeah, yeah for sure, but yeah.
So.
Goldman's other credits include Chaplain in nineteen ninety two, The Ghost in the Darkness, The Ghost and the Darkness in nineteen ninety six, and then two more Stephen like well, sorry he did other stuff, but there was a two more Stephen King stories in there, nineteen ninety nine's Hearts and Atlantis and then two thousand and three Streamcatcher, which with the Lawrence Ka's name. I looked up. Yeah, we
were talking about that. Okay. So Columbia immediately reaches out to William Goldman, who initially turns them down due to finding the script to bloody. But they must have kept like counting him or something, because a few days later he agreed to a conference call that would include Arnold, Arnold's agent, and then Columbia's top three executives. I'm gonna
assume that out of like the three of them. Sorry, I'm gonna assume that out of all those people, like the lot of them, I guess would be the way to go about that. It was possibly it was probably actually Arnold who did the most, like most of the sweet talking in this case, I guess, unless there's like a charming as hell like studio exact like he was just But no, they I don't know. Maybe they got to be able to get that effort.
I don't know. Maybe if he worked with them a lot or something he knew one of them. I don't know.
Well, he had a relationship with Arnold because he uh like they developed like at least a working relationship, although also doing a little bit of that Persuadon was the money because Columbia offered Goldman seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars for four weeks of work Jesus Christ, which worked out to about one hundred and eighty seven thousand dollars a week, or about twenty seven thousand dollars a day. In return, I did not figure that out to write
Leo the fart, No, that that was. That was he had to he had to make that a more emotional thing, like.
To give him, to make that, yeah, more believable a character.
He's like, they smelt it, but they couldnot deal with the fact that someone else anyway. In return, Goldman was supposed to make the script a little more family friendly, like a palatable or whatever, like basically to make it more appealing to a broader audience. Sure, a little more Princess Bride, a little less misery basically because Shane Black was definitely leaning like on the art Like, Shane Black admitted during an interview that they were constantly trying to
see how far they could push the PG thirteen rating. Yeah, so I'm assuming they just wanted William Goldman to like reridle it back into like more PG thirteen anyway, and Goldman definitely made some pretty significant changes, including changing Danny's age from fifteen to eleven, which, according to The New York Times, was at Arnold's request due to the fact that he had quote played opposite a tough teenager in Terminator two and didn't want to do it again unquote,
And wasn't John supposed to be like way younger than Edward for long actually was in Terminator.
Yeah, didn't we talk about it. He was supposed to be like ten.
Yeah, yeah, he's like I have written down in the script. He's a dirt bike writing toddler.
So no, he was ten because the movie takes place in nineteen eighty four and he's born in eighty four.
Okay, yeah, so that's why they changed the age, which there's a bunch of changes with I'm assuming with that too. Chris like the way the character acts too.
I didn't feel like I had a good idea of what Danny's age was in the in the original script.
From what Zach Pinnadam left and then Shane like, I thought it was seventeen, but it's anywhere between fifteen and seventeen. Apparently it's fifteen, but yeah, I don't know get he was older. But you know, apparently this also made the Danny character more vulnerable, because kids have no sense of
self preservation whatsoever. Like seriously, I once saw this kid running as like a busy parking lot without even bothering to look around, because he was trying to hide from his dad, like playing a joke on his dad, trying to hide from him. Like I saw his dad like running around like yelling his name. He's like Jason, Jason, and the kid would kept like moving around the car, like just laughing. I was like, oh, this is good,
but that kid's gonna be hit by a car. And his dad was freaking out Jason Jason, and then he like running around the cry as I starts laughing, He's like, oh my god. Oh he was good. Anyway, Sorry up there with Val Kilmer, but yeah, I guess he also made the Jack Slater character more vulnerable, which makes me curious how much of that ended up making it into
the final script. Yeah. Anyway, So, Golden's other changes included promoting Benedict from secondary villain to main villain, ye, as well as, according to John mc ternan, getting rid of one hundred and fifty toilet jokes, which I think means fart jokes, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, Like I don't know, like those the Holy old the fart sequence just makes me laugh. So yeah, I'm on, I'm on change black side. So far,
that's really funny. Yeah, well it was adventary, was exaggeraing, But yeah. The other couple of big changes that seems like they would have shifted the tone in the movie a bit. I guess, well Goldman got rid of some of the more supernatural elements of the movie, or rather exercise them. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, okay. The first one being changing the character of Nick the projectionist into a sweet old guy who probably seems like he's Danny's only friend.
I think kind of seems like it, which is definitely a big change from both the pen Left and the Black David versions of the script. What was Nick the character like in the pen Left draft?
So in the zech Ben version, he's basically the devil. Oh, like, he's the bad guy, like you don't it starts out and he's just a projectionist. He's like Danny's buddy that lets him see movies early, which is fine, but the I think the theater is literally called the Asmodium. Yeah, I think it's called the Asmodium. With that, I think, I think Asmodius is like a I was supposed to look this Upsmodius is like a devil thing. It's like an evil thing, right, yeah, yeah, of course, yeah, thank you, Joe.
You know what it is. If you remember what it is, let me know. Ye, a figure of.
Jewish legend and demonology, the king of demons anyway, Yeah.
Hang on, that makes sense because Fantasia smy.
Yeah, Mickey Mouse, so sorry, I didn't mean to insult Disney in front of you.
So he's so he's just like it's like a at least a demon.
At first, he's just an old man kind of he's like Nick, just a little less goofy basically like a not exactly, but like so. And then there's this weird moment where he gives Danny a gun before he.
Goes into the movie before he goes into the movie.
Gives them like a magic gun and tells him that like it's after he gets mugged, right, So he's all upset about that, and he's talking to him about how there's no justice in the real world, and so he gives him this giant gun and tells him and just says, promise me that when you encounter a moment when justice is not being done, that you'll use it. So he's basically making him promise to murder somebody. And then he jumps into the movie. You don't know who the bad
guy is. He's just this weird, random villain that has bandages all over his face. And then there's a reveal at the end of the movie when he takes off the bandages that it's the projectionist.
Oh that's right, because they don't come back.
No, they don't come back to the entire climax of the movie is in the movie. Yeah, that's right, okay, and they, like I told you last time, at the end of the movie, they end up in the movie world back at an old movie theater and like somewhere in that scene it like transitioned into the asmodium, like the same movie theater that he was originally at. They have a final showdown there the projectionist tries to is like yelling at him to kill him, basically to kill to shoot him.
The projection Oh yeah, okay.
Like because he's he's the bad guy. Yeah, and Danny has to like figure out that violence is not the answer. And then like the last shots of the movie, like the movie movie are like the are like the theater going up in flames on the movie screen, and the projectionist like falls into the fire.
But he's Satan, so he likes that.
He's probably cool.
He's like crowdst like like like home. Yeah right, but.
Yeah, he's, like I said, basically the devil.
That makes sense because that whole character in to me gives off very like Catholic preacher vibes.
He gives off a Grandpa monster vibe to me.
He's very like I don't know, he.
Was Catholic rudy because he's talking to young impressionable boys.
Parents not supervised by his parents, with no other like living soul around the theater? Is that Keith's Church?
Like true?
I mean yeah, all right, yeah, this movie's sick. That's right.
The Catholic Church should never live in that ship down.
Okay, So I actually have a quote from David or Not that Nick the Projectionist was the villain in the original script, but they took it even further, saying, quote in Zach and Adams script, the villain within the movie turns out to be the projectionist of the theater. We extended that and made the projectionist the devil, because who's better sold to steal than the young kids who sneak
in R rated movies and liver for violence. Yeah those kids. Yeah, I don't know, stealing from stealing from the hard working people. Come on anyway, Okay, so tell me if this is the end of the actual like movie, But he continues by saying in the end or in our ending. Nick tries to go to the kid into shooting him, but Jack talks him out of it. Then Nick the Devil says, what are you gonna do? Kid? Your Jack is dying.
You're not gonna help him. The kid puts down Jack's gun and says, Nick, when I was younger and my dad was around, we used to play cowboys and Indians together. All I ever really needed was this, And then he clicks his fingers in a fake gun and he sort of looks at it, and there's a pause. The kid aims his finger at Nick and says the word bang, and a thick hole blows through him. He goes bang another hole and then he goes the bunch of holes.
Not to sound really corny, but he essentially kills him with his imagination, and we thought, God, that's good.
That's kind of what happens in it. I'm Stephen King. Yeah so, uh, I.
Think it works a little bit better.
And yeah, yeah, well the book, Oh the fucking dude.
No they nam in the movie.
Yeah, God Jesus, I mean I move some way, you fat bitch, like we were just a bully.
I'm just a fucking being from the Elder realms.
The Black Kids, you son, you fucking racist? Yeah, I like.
So.
By the way, the more that I read about the way that all the writers talk about their own scripts, the more I realized just had like sweet your own farts smell, which is just which is an observation. I think that Shane Black would probably appreciate. He's like for jokes.
Yep, I mean, should I listen to this podcast?
And by the way, sorry, you asked me if that was what happened in the original script. Yes, yes, yes, no, there was a lot less talking. It was just like him like screaming at him.
Like do it, do it?
Shoot me?
Come on? Do it?
Did he do it?
Just no, you didn't do the finger gun thing. You didn't like talk to him at all. He just like decided not to shoot him.
And then they they come out boring. Yeah, okay, well we gotta find boring and subtle. Yeah, it's not glorious like, so start using his wieners like.
It's definitely the sound of guns.
Just like bam uh. Anyway, okay, I want to set up the final Goldman change I have by watching Let's watch a quick deleted scene for the movie. This takes place after Jack, Slater and Danny arrive in the real world and is an alternate take of the scene when Danny starts complaining about like that they've been searching for Benedict all day before spotting him coming out of the movie theater like, which ends up leading to the the sequence when Slater's running across the cabs in the rain
and then Arnold giving like the rubber baby buggy bumpers. Anyway, go ahead, hey guys, Aaron, here just a quick heads up there. We're not going to play the clip, mostly because the sound quality for it was so bad that we had to turn the subtitles on when we were
watching it. Basically, what it is is It's a three minute alternate or extended sequence of the scene I just described that includes a pretty somber conversation between Jack Slater and Danny about Danny's dad, who we end up finding out died from cancer, and then Jack explaining that his dad was murdered. If you want to check out the scene for yourself, you can find the YouTube link in the episode's description. The video includes all the movies deleted scenes,
but you can find this particular scene about two minutes in. Okay, now back to the episode.
Okay, I don't understand what I was supposed to be looking for.
Yeah, just the fact that I'd never thought about it before. Basically, I don't think the whole damn thing was the worst deletion.
I think I was not thinking about it because in that Zach pennscript it's in there a lot. Yes, I know that, like that's the whole point of that. That's like Danny's whole arc is in terms with his dad's death.
I think knowing that does maybe help as far as like the connection between Dak Dak and Janny, Jack and Danny in that they're both kind of like pretty much like the replacement for the person that they lost. But it's such a huge shift in tone from pretty much the rest of the movie.
See that's the maybe that was the problem with the Zach pennscript and Arnold's character. He didn't need Danny, he hadn't lost any kids. Okay, yeah, exact pennscript, so like he had no reason to give a shit about Danny. It was just about Danny and his dad.
They also called like they were very clear that the whole thing was like wish fulfillment for the Danny character.
Yeah for sure.
Yeah, and uh, I like I like a good comedy drama, common dramamedy. They they got to come up with the name of that come on.
A comma.
Okay, that's right, but yeah, it's it's probably like it's probably one of my favorite genres when it's done well, which is why I like Six Feet Under. But like this fills out of place with the tone that we've alread they've already established throughout the rest of the movie, Like, yeah, we're on twenty five minutes. You can watch a scene where f Murray Abraham gets shot by a cat, Like
so just adds up. We're gonna bring this up again when we do the summary but I wanted to show you guys that deleted scene because, according to The New York Times, William Goldman deleted a scene that included quote some supernatural elements, including Danny's telephone call to his dead father, which unquote and damn yeah, that's uh, that's some pretty heavy stuff for a movie that includes a character getting impaled by an ice cream cone. It was Shane Black,
by the way, yep, yeah, oh was it. Yeah, it was like I was just like, holy shit, like that's that's fucking impressing. It's it's just a weird tonal shift even with like That's.
Part of why I said that the Zach Penn thing didn't feel right, because some of it felt like blazing saddle, Blazing Saddle is an airplane, and other parts were genuinely trying to get you to give a shit about Danny and his relationship to his dead dad, who you never met. Thee no, who you never mean. The total whiplash is definitely kind of weird in that script.
Yeah anyway, Okay, so moving on, William Goldman hands in his draft, but supposedly Arnold wasn't completely happy with it. It was too serious and had lost like that zinger spark or whatever that made it a fun summer movie. So they brought Shane Black and David are Not back to give it like some of that spark that I've decided just makes John mckernan's Llin's throb. You know, that's what they want. That's that's that's the right look. Erica.
She's like, hmm anyway, sorry, okay, anyway. And by the way, because zach Pin and Adam Left were never officially fun because they were never officially hired, they kind of were just hanging around. Like zach Pen even says it in twenty eighteen retrospective article by The Telegraph that he would call up studio executives and tell them what he thought
was wrong with the story. And he's like, I can't believe that they did not hang up on me, which I find slightly annoying because it bugs me when people can't read or just don't care enough to read the room. But like, I kind of also don't blame him, because they were pretty much ghosted by like the studio, and they didn't have any prior experience, so they were like, we don't know what's going on.
Yeah, yeah, we don't know how involved were supposed to be. So wait, he was still getting drafts of the script.
I guess he was able to read him somehow. I don't know who it like, Yeah, but I'm pretty sure there were still they were still doing rewrites up until filming began, and I'm just I don't want to write write about the script anymore, So let's get the rest of the writers out of the way so we can move forward.
So there was Shane Black and David Or not give it a go Columbia still apparently was Or and Arnold wasn't happy with the script, so they next brought in Larry Ferguson, who had written the John Mckerndon directed The Hunt for October, also wrote co wrote Beverly Hills Cop two and was the original I wrote, he's the original Highlander. But he's the original writer for Highlander. It might be
the original Highlander. I don't know. So two concha two con Chawnery movies, Oh my god, two Sean Connery movies. And I'm curious for like for The Red Hunter of October. Instead of like describing Sean Connery's character as like a Sean Connery type like in the script, he just wrote the dialogue like fanatically, like Sean Connery type. I don't
know anyway. He also wrote the screenplay for Alien three right before he did Last Action Hero, so it's probably a good thing he wasn't credited on Last Action Hero because that's a that one two combos not the best. Yeah. Next is Sally Robinson, who co wrote mccherney's last film before Last Action Hero, which was Medicine Man.
Another Connery film.
Yeah, and that's in the dark Quinn Medicine Woman verse.
Right, Yes, yes, I think they're in the jungle. But yeah, like that's that's her, that's her Scottish uncle. I think they are in the jungle in that movie.
That's a Scottish descendant.
No uncle, No, she's in the fucking Old West. She's a Highlander.
Okay, all right, fine, Yeah he's got there.
I decided to don't boose on my keyboard.
Uh it's over there.
He was just thinking about doctor Quinn.
Yeah, Sean Connery, not a Jane Seymour. Okay, So next, Yeah, Sally Robinson Robinson, she wrote Medicine Man, and who, according to the La Times, was brought in to write the four scenes for Danny's Mom. M. Yeah, but Aaron you sorry, didn't Danny's Mom only have three scenes in the movie, very observing Joe. Yeah, and we'll get to that in the summary. But as far as uh, because I was run out of time, we'll get that in the summer.
But as far as Sally Robinson, the La Times credits her for writing the mom's dialogue, but also mentions that she denied being involved in the film.
Hmmm.
Interesting.
And then lastly, we have Carrie Fisher, who isn't listed on anything official at all. Like, the only reason that I have relisted is because both Shane Black and Zach Pann confirmed that she did some work on the script. And I just forgot to mention that Charles Dance ended up writing most of his own dialogue.
Oh that's interesting.
Okay, So the total cost Columbia ended up paying out for all these fucking jib brownis to work on the script was like allegedly three million dollars damn yeah. So, which was crazy because uh, Shane Black got a million, and then they were paid The first two were paid three hundred and fifty thousand.
So Goldman, you said it was paid seven yeah.
Yeah, So that was it was, Yeah anyway, so Arnold I agreed to start fifty million. John McK chernon was paid five point five million, and in July nineteen ninety two, they announced a release date for Last Section Hero, which was a June eighteenth, nineteen ninety three. Unfortunately, a few months late, Universal would announce that it's big summer movie would be released on June eleventh. And oh oh, dress, yes.
Got it.
Yeah, So basically Last Section here ends up blowing Dassic Park out of the water.
Yeah, as we all know.
Yeah, right, but we'll get to that lad, all right, alrighty, And that's going to wrap things up for this episode, But join us next week. We'll be discussing some of the interesting marketing decisions that Columbia made, as well as doing a little comparing contrast between the Last Action Hero and Jurassic Park production schedules. Maybe a little bit of
their marketing stuff too. Anyway, thanks so much for listening, and please don't forget to leave us a rating review on either Apple Podcast or Spotify because it just helps so much. Thank you again, and we'll see you soon.
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