Film Courage: What is the shortest amount of time you’ve written a script?
Shane Stanley, Filmmaker/Author/Instructor: I did a 36-hour fade-in-to-the-end for Emmett/Furla
films project called BAD NEWS that I wrote for them. I did it on a Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday without sleep, no drugs, without sleep. I crashed some point at. I physically collapsed
in my condo and I woke up at some point Friday, printed it out, called Emmett/Furla,
drove it to them at the Warner lot and they optioned it. They called me Monday said “We
loved it, it’s exactly what we need. We want it.” That was three days, non-stop.
Film Courage:
Did the lack of sleep help you get into a mindset? Was it some type of sci-fi fantasy?
Shane: No, it was an action film. I knew the story I wanted to tell and Emmett and Furla
were friends. We’d done a film or two with them and they were buying. They were working
with people at the time that I’d worked with in the past. They were working with Avi Lerner
and Cassian Elwes and Mark Rifkin and some of those guys from the late 90’s I had worked with
who were cranking out these 10 to 20 million dollar action movies. So I knew what they wanted
and they were paying to do it and these guys I pitched George on it over the phone and he’s
like “That sounds cool, get me the script.” This was like on a Tuesday and I hung up
the phone. It was like three o’clock in the afternoon. I just started writing,
I started writing. Then I collapsed at some point Thursday and realized that I wrote The End.
Film Courage: Did you wake up and the room was spinning? What happened? Did someone find you?
Shane: I was living alone at the time. It was after my first divorce. I was back living alone.
You know us bachelors when we find our way back to bachelorhood was usually live.
It was crazy. I remember that time very vividly and I remember writing it Tuesday afternoon,
collapsing some point Thursday and you know when you wake up Friday everything is still
a blur and I just remember hitting print - there was 96 pages, I just hit print.
I punch-holed them, put a brad in, call their office to make sure Dal was their guy at the
time who was head of development. I said “Dal it’s Shane, I’m coming, will you give me a pass?” He
goes “Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’re waiting for you, dude.” Drove onto the Warner lot, have it to
Dal and said “Enjoy it.” George called me and said “Yeah dude, you’ve got a deal.” I will say George
has better taste than that. This was 25 years ago but yes, that was the fastest script I ever wrote.
Film Courage: Wow…a lot of coffee?
Shane: Oh yeah. Crown and coffee. I don’t know why.
Crown Royal and coffee. I don’t know how…and an empty stomach. You’ve got to stay awake.
Film Courage: In the little purple bag…Crown Royal.
Shane: I probably smoked a lot too. I went through a phase where I was smoking a lot.
I think I probably went through 19 packs of cigarettes that week. Good times…thank
goodness I’m vegan now. I’m making up trying to take care of myself now that I’m old.
Film Courage: That’s just quite an image. I can see it.
Shane: I can tell you another story similar.
Film Courage: Please do.
Shane: I’ll tell you another story similar. We did NO CODE OF CONDUCT for Dimension which was
Miramax. It was a 12 million dollar film we shot. We had a green light on the script. Charlie Sheen
starred in it and we had written it, they didn’t want to tell that story so they brought two other
writers on. A couple of great guys, Ed Masterson and Bill Gucwa, really cool guys. We ended up
becoming very good friends for a long time. Actually one of them bought a car from me and
we got to Phoenix and the director and Charlie read the script and they go “What the heck is
this?” And I said I don’t know, that’s what they sent. And they go Well we start shooting in 48
hours, get your laptop, fade in. So we rewrote the script in Arizona two days before we shot
from page one and just about a page one rewrite. That was another all same time
in my life. It was in give or take a few years so I was still able to do that.
Film Courage: And how does this work with the original credit?
Shane: Who cares! We’re just a bunch of dumb people making movies. I mean they paid us,
we were producing the film, they paid the writers. It was like they had a deal with the writers
anyway. So it was like we wrote the film, Charlie, Brett Michaels and I wrote the script and then
they agreed to make the movie, we went to Phoenix to make the movie and then somebody go in the mix
and said that’s not the script we want to make and hired two writers, didn’t tell us anything about
it and just sent us a script. The guys never came out to Arizona. They were just two guys in LA that
were told to rewrite a script that they weren’t happy with because it was originally written for
LA and then they send us to Phoenix for a 30 percent tax credit. So we get there and
it’s just a domino effect. You change the script and it’s what the heck? This isn’t what we…Charlie
is like this isn’t why I’m here. We didn’t agree to do this and it wasn’t our company. Charlie,
Brett and I had a company. They said come on dynamo, get some Jolt cola or
get some coffee and fire it up. Let’s go. We did a 48 hour, two days before we wrote.
We rewrote the whole script and I don’t think they ever knew it.
Film Courage: So what was hour 47 like?
Shane: Hour 47 I remember being in the Homestead Village, they hadn’t set us up in our homes yet.
They gave us homes. It was a 12 million dollar film in Phoenix in the 90’s. That’s a lot of
money. They had us in the Homestead Village and we each had our own unit and I remember being in
Brett’s at his cabinet. I probably smoked three packs of cigarettes a day and just drank coffee.
It was nuts. And then there was a Kenny Rogers Roasters right at the end. It was
like that episode of Seinfeld and I was just like living on Kenny Rogers Roasters for like
two weeks while we were there and those last 48 hours went through like two buckets of chicken.
It was brutal, it was brutal. It smelled in there. And then I had a day and a half
and I remember Joe Lando from Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman was co-starring in it. He was our bad
guy and he’s a dear friend (he still is) and I remember going to my room and collapsing and you
know the sound of a hotel phone ringing (that loud chirp). It woke me up about 18 hours later and if
you’ve ever woken up from a sleep so deep that you feel like you’ve gotten punched by Mike Tyson and
you’re incoherent, I remember the phone ringing, waking up and literally I
couldn’t not see. Me eyes were open and I was like Mike Tyson on his hands and knees when