The parties never went away. They are, to many in Hollywood, legendary. They take place in screenwriter Shane Black's Hancock Park home, a mansion set on a well-kept lawn and in a gated community.
On this night, it is Black's 43rd birthday party and the cars -- expensive and shiny, like giant jewelry -- come gliding in. Black sips a Grey Goose and soda as he moves from room to room, stopping to flirt with a local weather girl -- "Isn't she beautiful?" -- and pose for the photographer he has hired to be on hand. In a snapshot that later shows his eyebrows amusedly raised and his hands on the shoulders of two women, he plays the part of a Casanova perfectly. He seems relaxed, happy. One would never guess that in the annals of recent Hollywood history, Black has had one of the most complicated and speculated-upon journeys through town -- and that in the minds of many, he essentially disappeared close to a decade ago.
Arriving fresh-faced and gifted in Hollywood in 1985, Black sold his first script, "Lethal Weapon," for $250,000. He was 23. Four years later, he followed that up with "The Last Boy Scout" -- which sold for $1.75 million, at the time the most ever paid for an original script. Black beat his own record in 1994 with "The Long Kiss Goodnight": It garnered $4 million.
But Black wasn't just rich. He was credited with inventing a new version of the action genre. That cool, jive-talkin' guy nonchalantly backed up by epic explosions? Pure Black. It may be hard to believe, but the combination of wit and wild action in film was new in the late '80s, and the likes of Tarantino might not exist without him.
Yet at the height of his creative powers, if not his commercial success ("The Long Kiss Goodnight" bombed), Black walked away. No one knew why. Was it the shock of failure? Personal problems? Self-loathing at his own extremely commercial sensibilities? Or was it just the dropping out of a well-compensated success who'd come to Hollywood to make his pot of gold and, that accomplished, had decided to travel down Easy Street?
All anyone really knew was that Black stayed in Hollywood -- often giving those well-known bashes -- and yet, as the years ticked by, his work wasn't seen on screen again.
When asked about the "lost" years, Black initially demurs.
