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FunkyIke66 · Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 295 Location: Salt Lake City

If you ever wanted the Razoni and Jackson book series made into a series of movies, you got your wish . . . already!

The films starred Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. There are four of them.

Go to your local DVD retailer and purchase the Lethal Weapon films. (One of them, the second and best, was even co-penned by Warren.) The lethal weapon films are obviously based (unofficially) on Warren's paperback series from the mid-'70s.

The characters aren't even disguised: A reckless white cop; a conservative black cop. (By the way, this was a pretty unique role reversal in the '70s as usually the white dude was the conservative guy and the black dude was the wilder one, e.g., Silver Streak, etc.)

A little dash of Remo was thrown in for good measure. If you remember, Mel Gibson is deadly at hand-to-hand combat in the flicks and is unofficially certified as a "lethal weapon" . .. hence the title of the films.

At least Shane Black was honest enough to bring Warren in to help write the second film. For the record, I had Lethal Weapon 2 pegged as my favorite of the series long before I knew Warren had anything to do with it.

Speaking of Shane Black, was I the only one who thought the opening of "Last Boy Scout" with Bruce Willis . . . the opening where the football player starts shooting up the field wth a gun. . . was also VERY derivative of an opening you'd read in a Destroyer book.

Well, I'm a Shane Black fan . . . not surprising given who he rips off.
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The floater stroke . . . still the coolest Sinanju technique.

Guest · Posted: Wed May 17, 2006 11:33 pm Post subject:

Hmmm. Shane Black... Where have I heard that name...

Twisted Evil

B.

porcupine141 · Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 6 Location: SoCal Beachtown, USA

So Lethal Weapon is derivative. HOLLYWOOD is derivative. There has not been an original thought in Los Angeles County since somewhere around 1925. Ever since, the place has been Coast-ing on its reputation and on the backs of genuinely creative types from Elsewhere.

A number of years ago, David Morrell did an article for Playboy in which he detailed the contract machinations to sell First Blood to Hollywood. Morrell notes that he chided the attorney who drafted the contract for including "serialization" rights for a character who dies (Rambo was killed in the book!) The reply has stuck with me through the years:

"This is Hollywood. By the time this gets made, it is liable to be a musical!"

The attorney's insistence on reserving serialization; screenplays and a portion of merchandising has made Morrell a wealthy man.