Blank Check with Griffin & David Last Action Hero with Paul Scheer & Jason Mantzoukas
23 snips
Mar 24, 2024 
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McTiernan's Feast-or-Famine Legacy
- John McTiernan is a feast-or-famine filmmaker who made huge hits and spectacular flops.
- Last Action Hero sits uniquely as a complicated outlier in his career due to its tonal struggles.
Ambition Turned Liability
- Last Action Hero aimed to be the biggest hit of 1993 and suffered when it underperformed.
- The film's ambition made its failure feel catastrophic, worsening its cultural reception.
Spec Script Became A Sellable Monster
- Zach Pen and Adam Leff wrote the original spec to show mastery of action tropes.
- Columbia saw the idea's sellability and greenlit massive development despite tonal risks.