Editing Lethal Weapon (section)

===Development===
Recent [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]] graduate [[Shane Black]] wrote the screenplay in mid-1985. Black stated that his intention was to do an "urban [[Western (genre)|western]]" inspired by ''[[Dirty Harry]]'' where a violent character "reviled for what he did, what he is capable of, the things he believed in" is eventually recruited for being the one that could solve the problem. The protagonists would be [[Everyman|everymen]] policemen, "guys shuffling in a town like Los Angeles searching for something noble as justice when they're just guys in washed and worn suits seeking a paycheck".

According to Black, his original first draft of the script was very different and much darker than the final film. It was 140 pages long and both the plot and characters were different, and action scenes were also much bigger. The ending of the script contained a chase scene with helicopters and a trailer truck full of [[cocaine]] exploding over Hollywood Hills with cocaine snowing over the Hollywood sign. Black hated this first draft and initially discarded it but later picked it up again and re-wrote it into the new drafts that were eventually used for filming.<ref name=pension/>

His agent sent the ''Lethal Weapon'' script to various studios, being rejected before [[Warner Bros.]] executive [[Mark Canton]] took a liking to it.<ref name=pension>{{cite video|section=Psycho Pension: The Genesis of Lethal Weapon|title=Lethal Weapon Collection |at=disk 5|year=2012|type=Documentary|publisher=Warner Bros. Home Entertainment}}</ref> Canton brought along producer [[Joel Silver]], who loved the story and worked with Black to further develop the script. Writer Jeffrey Boam also did some uncredited re-writes on Black's script after complaints that parts of it were too dark. Boam added more humor to the script, and later did a complete re-write of Shane Black and Warren Murphy's rejected script for the second film. He also wrote the script for the third film and an unused draft for the fourth film.<ref>Deans, Laurie (January 13, 1989). "LA CLIPS Lethal Weapon II script defused". The Globe and Mail.</ref>

After the script was purchased for $250,000, studio production executives offered it to director [[Richard Donner]], who also loved it. [[Leonard Nimoy]] was among the directors considered for the project, but he did not feel comfortable doing action films, and he was working on ''[[Three Men and a Baby]]'' at the time.<ref>{{cite book|title=Star trek: an annotated guide to resources on the development, the phenomenon, the people, the television series, the films, the novels, and the recordings|first=Susan R.|last=Gibberman|publisher=McFarland & Co.|year=1991|page=393|isbn=0899505473}}</ref>