June 10, 2025 • 43 mins
Aaron, Chris, & Joe partner up with Arnold Braunschweiger's 1993 action comedy, Last Action Hero!
The boys are once again joined by guest Erika Shasky as they continue their dive into the film’s production info by discussing script changes made by even more screenwriters, including one that would guarantee Arnold agreeing to do the film!
Don't forget to Subscribe, Rate & Review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and we may just read your review during an episode!
And follow us on TikTok, Instagram, & Facebook to see any pics or videos we check out during the episode!
You can check out the deleted scene they watched during the episode by clicking HERE!
The boys are once again joined by guest Erika Shasky as they continue their dive into the film’s production info by discussing script changes made by even more screenwriters, including one that would guarantee Arnold agreeing to do the film!
Don't forget to Subscribe, Rate & Review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and we may just read your review during an episode!
And follow us on TikTok, Instagram, & Facebook to see any pics or videos we check out during the episode!
You can check out the deleted scene they watched during the episode by clicking HERE!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Tip Deck Media.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
See the Party.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
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
(00:36):
Arnold's nineteen ninety three satire.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
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.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
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
(01:16):
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.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah right.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
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
(01:52):
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.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
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,
(02:32):
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
(02:54):
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.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Christ Yeah, I mean how much of that.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Is well, what you got out of it completely?
Speaker 5 (03:11):
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.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yep, it was.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
There their studio.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
That's because of the studio. Yeah, yeah, So it's.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
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.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
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
(03:59):
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.
(04:19):
And there was like there was like four others, but uh.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
Was that one based on the comic? Yes, yeah, okay,
I haven't seen that one.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I remember it being on all the time, but I don't.
You don't remember anything from it anyway.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
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.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
But we started making so many of them that it's
hard not to make like half of them dog shit.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
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.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Okay, so I just looked.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Sorry.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
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
(05:41):
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?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Like they didn't actually have the rights? Yeah, and they
signed like they.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
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.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
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.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
And there's a between the lines joke here that I'm trying.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
To come up with, uh snort, between the lines.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
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.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
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,
(07:04):
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?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
It's whatever, I don't know, It's really not that bad.
It's like Romancing the Stonebak Pirates.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
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
(07:53):
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
(08:14):
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.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
The one well, yeah, not the one that's just Shane Black.
We found the one that had been touched up by
William Goldman.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, which ended up a little loose. You said, seemed
like the shooting script, right.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
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.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Okay. I was just curious if it was like that
much better than the pen Left one, But.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
I think I think the movie is that much better
than the pen Left script.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
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,
(09:19):
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.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
NaN's more, I said, got deeper and deeper.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
John's more like it's gonna blow your balls out of
your buttle, like while smoking a cigarette.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Like it's like fucking Batman.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I feel like you're just doing Bruce Willis from Dieheard.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
Gonna blow your balls out of your buttle.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
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
(10:16):
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
(10:37):
of one.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
I don't know, well, I don't know. I don't know
when the Shane Black only script, I don't think.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
It changed very much like that that the relationship between
the dott Yeah then, but.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Yeah, and the Penn Left script, Like the Arnold character
doesn't have enough personality to really have a relationship with Danny.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
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
(11:18):
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
(11:38):
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
(11:59):
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
(12:20):
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.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I mean, what do you think that skull is? Actually?
Speaker 1 (12:41):
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
(13:04):
was like one of the top script doctors for Hollywood. Yeah,
because in addition to Twins, Oh really about him?
Speaker 3 (13:12):
No, no, no, William Goldman has a very famous book on
writing scripts. Yeah, I'm writing screenplays.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
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.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
That is correct.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
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,
(13:54):
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.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
To be fair, that scene was like not a real
therapy session like they had.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
That's true, that's true. That would be your counter argument
when he gives that excuse it wasn't.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Robin Williams wasn't doing therapy exactly. He wasn't getting his friend,
his like adopted son.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
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.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I called my therapist this week. Uh I basically I
told her her job as thought prostitution, which luckily she
thought that was funny.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
What I don't even know what that means.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
I mean, it's kind of a friend for hire.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
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.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
But thought, yeah, yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
It was like I should have held my tongue on
that one.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
This is quickly becoming a scientologist podcast. We're just joking around.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
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.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
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
(15:58):
there was someone else. And he said that, sorry, couldn't
finish your finish what you're saying too.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
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.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
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.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
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.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
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.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
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
(17:05):
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.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Of it all.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
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
(17:37):
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
(17:57):
was getting that and kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Kicks Like sounds like what fucking John Waters movie or whatever?
Uh faster Pussycat Killed something like that?
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (18:12):
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.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Come on, I eat, it was.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
That Gus fans ant. No, I don't think it was
a good will hunting but I can't.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
I don't know who it was, but it wasn't, I guess.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
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.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yeah, yeah, which, yeah, it makes sense just because like
we're getting old enough to we're like, there's no way.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
You know, you know, fucking dumb. I wasn't the time.
Speaker 5 (18:58):
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.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Yeah, well there's only what one reference to using a
kesher's glove flat flat?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
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
(19:42):
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.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
Come on, it's all the President's Men. It's not all
the presidents boobs, you know, are all the President's chicks?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah? That was also like I'm like you didn't have
a boobs and the Robert Redford Dustin Hoffman what okay anyway.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
I mean deep throat cut your attention.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
But aside from that, yeah, things just got interesting once.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Yeah. Where's Linda Lovelace.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
That's a very old Yeah, that's a reference older than you.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
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
(20:55):
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.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
So.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
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
(21:24):
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,
(21:45):
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.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
I don't know. Maybe if he worked with them a
lot or something he knew one of them. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
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.
(22:36):
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.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
To give him, to make that, yeah, more believable a character.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
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
(23:14):
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
(23:35):
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.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Yeah, didn't we talk about it. He was supposed to
be like ten.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Yeah, yeah, he's like I have written down in the script.
He's a dirt bike writing toddler.
Speaker 5 (24:00):
So no, he was ten because the movie takes place
in nineteen eighty four and he's born in eighty four.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
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.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
I didn't feel like I had a good idea of
what Danny's age was in the in the original script.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
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
(24:44):
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
(25:06):
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
(25:27):
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.
(25:48):
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
(26:13):
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?
Speaker 3 (26:30):
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,
(26:52):
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.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
You know what it is. If you remember what it is,
let me know. Ye, a figure of.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Jewish legend and demonology, the king of demons anyway, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Hang on, that makes sense because Fantasia smy.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
Yeah, Mickey Mouse, so sorry, I didn't mean to insult
Disney in front of you.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
So he's so he's just like it's like a at
least a demon.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Goes into the movie before he goes into the movie.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
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
(28:23):
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.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Oh that's right, because they don't come back.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
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
(29:02):
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.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
The projection Oh yeah, okay.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
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.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
But he's Satan, so he likes that.
Speaker 5 (29:39):
He's probably cool.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
He's like crowdst like like like home. Yeah right, but.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Yeah, he's, like I said, basically the devil.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
That makes sense because that whole character in to me
gives off very like Catholic preacher vibes.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
He gives off a Grandpa monster vibe to me.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
He's very like I don't know, he.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
Was Catholic rudy because he's talking to young impressionable boys.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Parents not supervised by his parents, with no other like
living soul around the theater? Is that Keith's Church?
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Like true?
Speaker 1 (30:21):
I mean yeah, all right, yeah, this movie's sick. That's right.
Speaker 5 (30:27):
The Catholic Church should never live in that ship down.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
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,
(30:56):
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
(31:18):
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.
(31:38):
Not to sound really corny, but he essentially kills him
with his imagination, and we thought, God, that's good.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
That's kind of what happens in it. I'm Stephen King.
Yeah so, uh, I.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Think it works a little bit better.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
And yeah, yeah, well the book, Oh the fucking dude.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
No they nam in the movie.
Speaker 7 (32:01):
Yeah, God Jesus, I mean I move some way, you
fat bitch, like we were just a bully.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
I'm just a fucking being from the Elder realms.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
The Black Kids, you son, you fucking racist? Yeah, I like.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
So.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
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.
Speaker 5 (32:41):
Yep, I mean, should I listen to this podcast?
Speaker 3 (32:43):
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.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Like do it, do it?
Speaker 3 (32:56):
Shoot me?
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Come on? Do it?
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Did he do it?
Speaker 3 (33:00):
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.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
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.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
It's definitely the sound of guns.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
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
(33:52):
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
(34:14):
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
(34:34):
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.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Okay, I don't understand what I was supposed to be
looking for.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
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.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
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.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
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.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
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.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
They also called like they were very clear that the
whole thing was like wish fulfillment for the Danny character.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
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.
Speaker 5 (36:01):
A comma.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
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
(36:24):
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
(36:44):
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.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
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.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
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
(37:39):
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
(38:00):
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.
(38:20):
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.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Yeah, yeah, we don't know how involved were supposed to be.
So wait, he was still getting drafts of the script.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
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
(38:55):
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.
(39:15):
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.
(39:39):
Next is Sally Robinson, who co wrote mccherney's last film
before Last Action Hero, which was Medicine Man.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Another Connery film.
Speaker 5 (39:46):
Yeah, and that's in the dark Quinn Medicine Woman verse.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
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.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
That's a Scottish descendant.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
No uncle, No, she's in the fucking Old West. She's
a Highlander.
Speaker 5 (40:07):
Okay, all right, fine, Yeah he's got there.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
I decided to don't boose on my keyboard.
Speaker 5 (40:18):
Uh it's over there.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
He was just thinking about doctor Quinn.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
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
(40:49):
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.
Speaker 5 (41:00):
Hmmm.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
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.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
Oh that's interesting.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
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.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
So Goldman, you said it was paid seven yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
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.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Got it.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Yeah, So basically Last Section here ends up blowing Dassic
Park out of the water.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
Yeah, as we all know.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
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,
(42:39):
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.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
If you enjoy our show, please consider giving us a
positive review on Apple podcasts or your podcast.
Speaker 5 (42:54):
App of choice.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram at the
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See You with The Potty Richter is a production of
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Speaker 1 (43:13):
This has been a tape deck Media production. Thank you
for listening.
Tip Deck Media.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
See the Party.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
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
(00:36):
Arnold's nineteen ninety three satire.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
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.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
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
(01:16):
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.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah right.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
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
(01:52):
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.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
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,
(02:32):
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
(02:54):
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.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Christ Yeah, I mean how much of that.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Is well, what you got out of it completely?
Speaker 5 (03:11):
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.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yep, it was.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
There their studio.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
That's because of the studio. Yeah, yeah, So it's.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
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.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
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
(03:59):
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.
(04:19):
And there was like there was like four others, but uh.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
Was that one based on the comic? Yes, yeah, okay,
I haven't seen that one.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I remember it being on all the time, but I don't.
You don't remember anything from it anyway.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
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.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
But we started making so many of them that it's
hard not to make like half of them dog shit.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
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.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Okay, so I just looked.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Sorry.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
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
(05:41):
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?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Like they didn't actually have the rights? Yeah, and they
signed like they.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
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.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
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.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
And there's a between the lines joke here that I'm trying.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
To come up with, uh snort, between the lines.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
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.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
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,
(07:04):
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?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
It's whatever, I don't know, It's really not that bad.
It's like Romancing the Stonebak Pirates.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
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
(07:53):
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
(08:14):
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.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
The one well, yeah, not the one that's just Shane Black.
We found the one that had been touched up by
William Goldman.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, which ended up a little loose. You said, seemed
like the shooting script, right.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
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.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Okay. I was just curious if it was like that
much better than the pen Left one, But.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
I think I think the movie is that much better
than the pen Left script.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
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,
(09:19):
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.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
NaN's more, I said, got deeper and deeper.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
John's more like it's gonna blow your balls out of
your buttle, like while smoking a cigarette.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Like it's like fucking Batman.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I feel like you're just doing Bruce Willis from Dieheard.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
Gonna blow your balls out of your buttle.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
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
(10:16):
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
(10:37):
of one.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
I don't know, well, I don't know. I don't know
when the Shane Black only script, I don't think.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
It changed very much like that that the relationship between
the dott Yeah then, but.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Yeah, and the Penn Left script, Like the Arnold character
doesn't have enough personality to really have a relationship with Danny.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
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
(11:18):
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
(11:38):
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
(11:59):
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
(12:20):
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.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I mean, what do you think that skull is? Actually?
Speaker 1 (12:41):
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
(13:04):
was like one of the top script doctors for Hollywood. Yeah,
because in addition to Twins, Oh really about him?
Speaker 3 (13:12):
No, no, no, William Goldman has a very famous book on
writing scripts. Yeah, I'm writing screenplays.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
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.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
That is correct.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
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,
(13:54):
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.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
To be fair, that scene was like not a real
therapy session like they had.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
That's true, that's true. That would be your counter argument
when he gives that excuse it wasn't.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Robin Williams wasn't doing therapy exactly. He wasn't getting his friend,
his like adopted son.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
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.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I called my therapist this week. Uh I basically I
told her her job as thought prostitution, which luckily she
thought that was funny.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
What I don't even know what that means.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
I mean, it's kind of a friend for hire.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
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.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
But thought, yeah, yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
It was like I should have held my tongue on
that one.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
This is quickly becoming a scientologist podcast. We're just joking around.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
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.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
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
(15:58):
there was someone else. And he said that, sorry, couldn't
finish your finish what you're saying too.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
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.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
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.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
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.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
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.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
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
(17:05):
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.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Of it all.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
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
(17:37):
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
(17:57):
was getting that and kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Kicks Like sounds like what fucking John Waters movie or whatever?
Uh faster Pussycat Killed something like that?
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (18:12):
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.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Come on, I eat, it was.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
That Gus fans ant. No, I don't think it was
a good will hunting but I can't.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
I don't know who it was, but it wasn't, I guess.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
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.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yeah, yeah, which, yeah, it makes sense just because like
we're getting old enough to we're like, there's no way.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
You know, you know, fucking dumb. I wasn't the time.
Speaker 5 (18:58):
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.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Yeah, well there's only what one reference to using a
kesher's glove flat flat?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
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
(19:42):
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.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
Come on, it's all the President's Men. It's not all
the presidents boobs, you know, are all the President's chicks?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah? That was also like I'm like you didn't have
a boobs and the Robert Redford Dustin Hoffman what okay anyway.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
I mean deep throat cut your attention.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
But aside from that, yeah, things just got interesting once.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Yeah. Where's Linda Lovelace.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
That's a very old Yeah, that's a reference older than you.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
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
(20:55):
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.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
So.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
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
(21:24):
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,
(21:45):
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.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
I don't know. Maybe if he worked with them a
lot or something he knew one of them. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
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.
(22:36):
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.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
To give him, to make that, yeah, more believable a character.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
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
(23:14):
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
(23:35):
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.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Yeah, didn't we talk about it. He was supposed to
be like ten.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Yeah, yeah, he's like I have written down in the script.
He's a dirt bike writing toddler.
Speaker 5 (24:00):
So no, he was ten because the movie takes place
in nineteen eighty four and he's born in eighty four.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
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.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
I didn't feel like I had a good idea of
what Danny's age was in the in the original script.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
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
(24:44):
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
(25:06):
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
(25:27):
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.
(25:48):
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
(26:13):
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?
Speaker 3 (26:30):
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,
(26:52):
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.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
You know what it is. If you remember what it is,
let me know. Ye, a figure of.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Jewish legend and demonology, the king of demons anyway, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Hang on, that makes sense because Fantasia smy.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
Yeah, Mickey Mouse, so sorry, I didn't mean to insult
Disney in front of you.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
So he's so he's just like it's like a at
least a demon.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Goes into the movie before he goes into the movie.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
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
(28:23):
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.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Oh that's right, because they don't come back.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
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
(29:02):
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.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
The projection Oh yeah, okay.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
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.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
But he's Satan, so he likes that.
Speaker 5 (29:39):
He's probably cool.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
He's like crowdst like like like home. Yeah right, but.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Yeah, he's, like I said, basically the devil.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
That makes sense because that whole character in to me
gives off very like Catholic preacher vibes.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
He gives off a Grandpa monster vibe to me.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
He's very like I don't know, he.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
Was Catholic rudy because he's talking to young impressionable boys.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Parents not supervised by his parents, with no other like
living soul around the theater? Is that Keith's Church?
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Like true?
Speaker 1 (30:21):
I mean yeah, all right, yeah, this movie's sick. That's right.
Speaker 5 (30:27):
The Catholic Church should never live in that ship down.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
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,
(30:56):
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
(31:18):
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.
(31:38):
Not to sound really corny, but he essentially kills him
with his imagination, and we thought, God, that's good.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
That's kind of what happens in it. I'm Stephen King.
Yeah so, uh, I.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Think it works a little bit better.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
And yeah, yeah, well the book, Oh the fucking dude.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
No they nam in the movie.
Speaker 7 (32:01):
Yeah, God Jesus, I mean I move some way, you
fat bitch, like we were just a bully.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
I'm just a fucking being from the Elder realms.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
The Black Kids, you son, you fucking racist? Yeah, I like.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
So.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
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.
Speaker 5 (32:41):
Yep, I mean, should I listen to this podcast?
Speaker 3 (32:43):
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.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Like do it, do it?
Speaker 3 (32:56):
Shoot me?
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Come on? Do it?
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Did he do it?
Speaker 3 (33:00):
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.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
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.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
It's definitely the sound of guns.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
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
(33:52):
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
(34:14):
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
(34:34):
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.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Okay, I don't understand what I was supposed to be
looking for.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
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.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
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.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
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.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
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.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
They also called like they were very clear that the
whole thing was like wish fulfillment for the Danny character.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
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.
Speaker 5 (36:01):
A comma.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
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
(36:24):
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
(36:44):
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.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
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.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
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
(37:39):
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
(38:00):
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.
(38:20):
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.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Yeah, yeah, we don't know how involved were supposed to be.
So wait, he was still getting drafts of the script.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
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
(38:55):
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.
(39:15):
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.
(39:39):
Next is Sally Robinson, who co wrote mccherney's last film
before Last Action Hero, which was Medicine Man.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Another Connery film.
Speaker 5 (39:46):
Yeah, and that's in the dark Quinn Medicine Woman verse.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
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.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
That's a Scottish descendant.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
No uncle, No, she's in the fucking Old West. She's
a Highlander.
Speaker 5 (40:07):
Okay, all right, fine, Yeah he's got there.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
I decided to don't boose on my keyboard.
Speaker 5 (40:18):
Uh it's over there.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
He was just thinking about doctor Quinn.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
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
(40:49):
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.
Speaker 5 (41:00):
Hmmm.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
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.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
Oh that's interesting.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
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.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
So Goldman, you said it was paid seven yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
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.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Got it.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Yeah, So basically Last Section here ends up blowing Dassic
Park out of the water.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
Yeah, as we all know.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
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,
(42:39):
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.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
If you enjoy our show, please consider giving us a
positive review on Apple podcasts or your podcast.
Speaker 5 (42:54):
App of choice.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram at the
potty Richter to make sure you never miss an episode.
See You with The Potty Richter is a production of
tape deck Media. Follow tape Deck on Instagram at tape
deck Underscore Media, or look us up on Facebook for
more hilarious podcasts.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
This has been a tape deck Media production. Thank you
for listening.
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