Sunday, January 09, 2011

Auteur Watch - Shane Black and Terry Black

Well, technically they've never worked together, but they're still brothers, damn it! And they still rule Hollywood, even though their best days are behind them. Well, everybody's different. Some people have to bust their ass writing scripts for 30 years to make a living, and some can coast the rest of their lives on royalties from one giant megahit; not many of those, arguably, but that's what the infrastructure's designed to support. Now, as with the Kasdans, there's one alpha brother and one omega brother. In this case, it'll be obvious to anyone even the slightest bit up on their Movie S.A.T.s that Shane Black is to Lawrence Kasdan what Terry Black is to... Mark Kasdan? Let me look him up first... Yup. Mark Kasdan. But at least they worked together at least once! Shane and Terry, not so much. Life's too short for the Blacks, I guess. But they're both washed up at this point; why don't they write a Silverado together? Resolve the impasse, guys! Shane's kinda looking less like Billy Crudup and more like Kevin Pollak these days.
But I can totally see why they wouldn't work together. Look at Terry's body of work. The 2000s have been very good to him indeed. He's in on the ground floor of the video game craze! Having written Red Steel and Red Steel 2, he'll be a billionaire in no time! Just like those Doom bastids. It also says he's a member of Mensa. That's what so cool about being so smart: you don't have to do any of that humanitarian work stuff. Seriously, though, he gives generously to many charities. Good guy.
Oh, and of course, the 80s clearly worked out great for them. Nineties and 2000s, progressively less and less so. Not to say their 70s weren't great, too, but it's so cliché these days to romanticize the 70s. Gas lines? Carter complaining about the gas lines? No thank you! No, the Blacks were young, dumb and full of confidence for their respective futures. They would RULE this town with not even an iron fist! Mere bronze will do. And the 80s were great for Terry. Remember Dead Heat? I barely do... oh, he didn't even get to direct it! Well, never mind, then!

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