You’ve incorporated aspects of horror into films, but would you ever make an out and out horror movie?
We did a horror pastiche for kids called “The Monster Squad” a long time ago. Other than that, I’m waiting. “The Exorcist” is my favorite movie: I think it’s flawless. When I was in college, it was still new when someone reached for the shower curtain and pulled it open, “sshhick!” and there’s nothing there, but you turn and there it is! If you do that these days, audiences know that trick. So you have to constantly reinvent the way you tell a horror story on film to account for that ever-increasing database in the audience’s mind. But, yeah, horror is a big deal for me.
Is that something you can do with a film like “Predator”?
There’s some pretty nightmarish stuff in “Predator.” [But] once again, tone shifts. I don’t want it to be humorless, but every once in a while, I hope we can get to something where you get a good shiver out of it. Otherwise, it’s just a monster movie.
Part of it is how you shoot it. Look at how, in “Alien,” they shot the alien. The last thing you want to see is the alien walking in the middle of a field from far away.
“I don’t think much about [the ‘Lethal Weapon’ TV show]. I’ve got nothing to do with it. I wish them well, I don’t know how you do that on ABC or whatever it is.”
Then you need scores of them, but even that wouldn’t be very interesting. It’s the one that really makes the desired impression.
It’s truly the one. And it’s knowing when to go wide with your shot. Think of James Cameron’s movie, “Aliens,” the one shot after she falls with the walker into the shaft like she’s about to go out into space. You look down, she’s there, and underneath her is a squirming thing, and you finally get a sense of how fucking big it is. It’s startling, like you’re not supposed to see that somehow. Like “ugh, I don’t want to look there.”
The other thing I hate in horror movies is where they just goop things for no reason. A creature comes out and it’s just got shit coming off it, slime and white nonsense. I wonder who poured the goop on it.
Are you still kicking with “Doc Savage”?
It’s kicking. It’s a real thing. It’s potentially so much fun, especially if you keep it to the period [specific to the ’30s pulp novels that the character debuted in]. I’ve had people say “just update it and have him fight Al Qaeda,” and I thought, no, no, no. That’s not what it is. It’s not about that —it’s about an era. It’s about a belief in exoticism that transcended the blight of the depression, that allowed you to look from your Hooverville camp across to the Empire State Building and know there’s a guy there who represented the pinnacle everything you could aspire to, and he encouraged everyone to save themselves. It’s Superman before Superman. But you have to change up the character —it’s got to be more colloquial, more about friendship. It’s a totally different tone [from Superman]. Frankly, I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with something like Superman, because I don’t know how I would approach that character.
“Doc Savage” could be really great. We’re waiting on Dwayne Johnson. I’ve got him to express what appears to be serious interest, but he’s busy.
[Note: Just a few short days after this interview was conducted but prior to publication, Dwayne Johnson said in an Instagram post he was looking over a script he plans to make with Shane Black in 2017, which is presumably the aforementioned“Doc Savage.” Nice for Black, as Johnson said in the post he’s making the film]
What do you think when you see the development of the “Lethal Weapon” TV show?
I don’t think much. I’ve got nothing to do with it. I wish them well, I don’t know how you do that on ABC or whatever it is. My feeling about network TV shows, except for things like “Hannibal,” is that if you really want to appeal to a four-quadrant audience, you’re automatically at PG, not even PG-13, and if a guy says a harsh word to a child or something, it’s going to be cut out. They’ll say “Standards and Practices insists that people be treated with respect under the age of ten.” I just don’t subscribe to the idea that the best way to make anything good is to appeal to everyone on the planet. You’re never going to make something that appeals to everybody. So I’m glad I’m not doing a TV show of “Lethal Weapon.”
Would you do TV if things might work out with Amazon or HBO?
Yeah! But once again, even in those circumstances, there’s such strict rules in so many of these places. They know exactly what they want. It’s got to be this many episodes, ten chapters, this many characters. You know, let me make movies because there are fewer rules.
They call TV the writer’s medium, but it’s basically the writer’s hoop-hopping as far as I can tell. I’m happy to be in features. I don’t know how to go into a TV room. I pitch, I do the same things I do in movies, but they say “OK, but, uh, where’s the supporting cast?” All TV shows now have a guy [on the poster] like this [mimes a serious pose, arms crossed over his chest], and there’s a ‘V’ of people behind him. And each of those people has their story through the ten-episode story. So you couldn’t do “The Rockford Files,” because he doesn’t have a ‘V’ behind him. It drives me nuts that you have to introduce everybody and track everyone. I’d rather do features —at two hours, they can’t fuck with you.
“The Nice Guys” opens on May 20th.