#Why The Last Action Hero Production Was Such A Nightmare

Empire wrote up an oral history of “Last Action Hero” in 2012 that included interviews with McTiernan, Black, and others involved in the film’s production. Among them was screenwriter Zak Penn, who co-wrote the original script — which carried the original and rather on-the-nose title of “Extremely Violent.” There’s actually a reason for that, as Penn and co-writer Adam Leff intended to write a sendup of the action genre, with Penn saying:

“The basic idea was: wouldn’t it be cool if a kid got sucked into a silly action movie and used his knowledge of the genre to subvert all the clichés?

“Extremely Violent” eventually got picked up by Columbia, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was tapped to play protagonist Arno Slater — ironically, the Governator served as a major inspiration for Slater, so things had come full circle. But Schwarzenegger raised a bevy of concerns about the tone and content of the script: he was actually looking to transition into more family friendly fare with a movie, of all things, about the Tooth Fairy. (Dwayne Johnson, The Artist Formerly Known as The Rock, wound up snagging the role, in 2010.)