Editing Lethal Weapon 2 (section)

===Jeffrey Boam's final script===
When the original Shane Black screenplay was changed, he left the series. The rewrites that resulted in the final film are by [[Jeffrey Boam]] (screenwriter for ''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]]'' and ''[[The Lost Boys]]''). Boam also did some uncredited re-writing of the script for the first film when Donner thought that some parts of it were too dark and violent.<ref name="auto1"/> Boam initially wrote two different drafts for his re-write of '' Lethal Weapon 2''; one which was hard-boiled action script and one which had more comedy. He was told to mix the two drafts together and make a new one that was going to be used for filming. However, not only did Boam end up having to re-write the script many times even before filming started, but he also had to keep re-writing it during production since Donner would always want to improvise something new in a scene or demanded changes to be made on the script in the middle of filming. Boam also wrote the script for ''[[Lethal Weapon 3]]'' and he once again had to re-write his script many times before and during filming of that sequel for same reasons. He also wrote an unused draft for the fourth film around January 1995 which had Riggs and Murtaugh fighting against a neo-Nazi survivalist militia group that was committing a terrorist attack in L.A.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.assignmentx.com/2013/exclusive-interview-the-last-crusade-of-screenwriter-jeffrey-boam/ |title=Exclusive Interview: The Last Crusade of Screenwriter Jeffrey Boam Assignment X |website=Assignmentx.com |date=2 May 2013 |access-date=2016-09-25}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/06/movies/two-summer-blockbusters-one-busy-screenwriter-scene-indiana-jones-last-crusade.html|title=Two Summer Blockbusters, One Busy Screenwriter a scene from ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (Murray Close)-going for glib|date=6 August 1989|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=2016-09-25}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://theoccasionalcritic.blogspot.mx/2009/09/jeffrey-boam-interview-1992.html |title=The Occasional Critic: The Jeffrey Boam interview, 1992 |website=Theoccasionalcritic.blogspot.mx |date=2009-09-24 |access-date=2016-09-25}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://theoccasionalcritic.blogspot.mx/2009/09/jeffrey-boam-interview-june-1995.html |title=The Occasional Critic: Jeffrey Boam interview, June 1995 |website=Theoccasionalcritic.blogspot.mx |date=2009-09-30 |access-date=2016-09-25}}</ref><ref>The Gross: The Hits, The Flops: The Summer That Ate Hollywood by Peter Bart</ref>

Screenwriter [[Robert Mark Kamen]] said in October 2012 interview for craveonline that during the time when he was working as screenwriter for Warner Bros. and would often do lot of uncredited work on their films, he also worked on ''Lethal Weapon 2'' and ''3''. He said how amongst large chunks of the stuff he added in ''Lethal Weapon 2'' script during re-writes were all the parts with South African villains. Although he was uncredited for his work on this film, he did get a credit for his work on ''Lethal Weapon 3'' because he did a lot more work on that sequel.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.craveonline.com/site/197469-not-a-sequel-robert-mark-kamen-on-taken-2-bloodsport-and-karate-kid |title=Not a Sequel: Robert Mark Kamen on Taken 2, Bloodsport and Karate Kid |website=CraveOnline.com |date=2012-10-08 |access-date=2016-09-25}}</ref>

Originally, the character of Rika was intended to survive, with the last scene in the film being Riggs and Rika eating [[Thanksgiving]] dinner with the Murtaughs, but the director decided to kill the character to increase Riggs' motivation to destroy the South African drug smugglers. The film was the debut of Leo Getz ([[Joe Pesci]]), a crooked but whistle-blowing [[Certified Public Accountant|CPA]] who is placed in protective custody by Riggs and Murtaugh, and makes the detectives' more difficult due to his neurotic behavior. The Getz character remained a regular throughout the remainder of the film series.