Trivia / The Last Boy Scout

• Creator Recovery: Shane Black wrote the script after having taken a two-year break from writing, triggered in part by the end of a relationship.
  I was busy mourning my life and, in many ways, the loss of my first real love. I didn’t feel much like doing anything except smoking cigarettes and reading paperbacks. All things come around. Time passed and eventually I sat down and transformed some of that bitterness into a character, the central focus of a private eye story which became The Last Boy Scout. Writing that script was a very cathartic experience, one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. I spent so much time alone working on that. Days which I wouldn’t speak. Three, four days where I maybe said a couple words. It was a wonderfully intense time where my focus was better than it’s ever been. And I was rewarded so handsomely ($1.75 million) for that script, if felt like a vindication and like I was back on track.
• The Danza: Billy Blanks as Billy Cole.
• Hostility on the Set: Bruce Willis didn't get on with Damon Wayans and fell out with producer Joel Silver, while director Tony Scott hated working with Silver so much that his next film, True Romance featured a Hollywood producer character who's a Take That! to Silver. Scott said about Silver; "He’s insane, with long, horrible fits of sanity". He compared Silver to a fighter pilot riding as a passenger. "As soon as you hit a little bit of turbulence, he’s right away going to throw the guy out of the window and take over the steering".
• Playing Against Type:
  • Taylor Negron was known for his comedic roles, so playing an Ax-Crazy villain like Milo was an unusual role for him.
  • Similarly, Danielle Harris is more known for her horror movie roles.
• Troubled Production: EVERYBODY involved in the production of the film had a miserable time working on it.
  • Producer Joel Silver and Bruce Willis took over the production and made significant changes to Shane Black's script and made Tony Scott film many scenes that he didn't like under threat of being fired from production.
  • Silver named it one of three worst experiences of his life, while Willis swore he will never work with Silver again.
  • Willis and Damon Wayans despised each other, even though they played buddies in the film.
  • Editor Stuart Baird was hired to completely re-edit the film after the original cut of the film turned out to be a borderline unwatchable workprint release.
  • A riot nearly occurred during filming at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Hundreds of extras were recalled for a second day of shooting, but a last minute decision was made to cancel the recall. The extras were not informed of the decision and arrived expecting a day of work. They were refused pay by the production, and as discontent grew, they began to surge against the barrier that surrounded the set. Riot police were called in to disperse the crowd.
• Wag the Director: According to Shane Black, Bruce Willis argued against the studio's attempts to make the film like Die Hard (which, funny enough, was this movie's original title!). He even complained that the film was about saving his wife, which already did in that movie.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In the original script, the entire third act was set on water. Also, Hallenbeck's grudge with senator Baynard was completely different from the movie. In the script, Hallenbeck was working security for the Baynard family when Louis Baynard, President Baynard's son, kills a mother and her child in a drunken car accident. When Hallenbeck refuses to cover for the president's son, they plant half a kilo of crack cocaine in his house. Louis Baynard was also a villain in the script, and in the end both he and his father die.
  • Shane Black's original draft was very different than the final film. Besides having a darker tone with more violence and gore, almost the entire second half of the script was completely different. Besides many differences with the plot and characters, Black's script also included more focus on the two villains Milo and Shelly Marcone. Milo, for example, was an even nastier villain than he is in the film. In the script, besides being a hit man for Marcone, he also had a side hustle as a director of snuff films in which his men would kill kidnapped women in very violent ways. There was also a scene in the script where he brutally kills an entire family who accidentally showed up near the place where a meeting between his and Baynard's men took place. Other parts that were changed include: a big boat chase scene with Joe and Jimmy trying to escape from Milo and his men chasing them through the fog until their boat and helicopter crash into each other, a shootout and fight scene between Joe and Marcone's men in Joe's house, another shootout in Marcone's mansion in which Joe sneaks in after killing several guards, and Joe and Jimmy saving Joe's wife Sarah from being killed with a chainsaw in one of Milo's snuff films and a different final showdown between Joe and Milo which took place outside Joe's office and after he chases and tries to shoot Joe while on foot, Milo gets killed by Sarah who shoots him with Joe's gun.
  • Jack Nicholson was the first choice for Joe Hallenbeck.
  • Mel Gibson was considered for Jimmy Dix.
  • Tony Scott wanted Grace Jones to play the small part of Cory, but the producers opposed the idea and Halle Berry was cast instead.
  • Billy Cole's last words "Ain't life a bitch?", before committing suicide, were originally "I'm going to Disneyland", a common phrase among Super Bowl winners.
• Working Title: Die Hard. Yes, really.

---