A Green Light and The Cast Gathers

The story behinds making "Lethal Weapon" was simple by Hollywood standards.

Recent UCLA graduate Shane Black wrote the screenplay in mid-1985. His agent sent it to producer Joel Silver, who loved the story and worked with Black to further develop the script. After they took it to Warner Bros. in early 1986, studio production executives offered it to director Richard Donner, who also loved it. With those key elements in place, the search began for the right combination of actors to play Riggs and Murtaugh.

Casting director Marion Dougherty first suggested teaming Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. She arranged for Gibson to fly in from his home in Australia, while Glover was flown in from Chicago (where he was appearing in a play) to read through the script.

According to Donner, "It took about two hours and by the time we were done, I was in seventh heaven. They found innuendoes; they found laughter where I never saw it; they found tears where they didn't exist before; and, most importantly, they found a relationship -- all in just one reading. So if you ask about casting... it was magical, just total dynamite."

Explains Gibson, "This particular story was a cut above others I had passed on, because the action is really a sideline which heightens the story of these two great characters. I picture Riggs as an almost Chaplinesque figure, a guy who doesn't expect anything from life and even toys with the idea of taking his own. He's not like these stalwarts who come down from Mt. Olympus and wreak havoc and go away. He's somebody who doesn't look like he's set to go off until he actually does."

The draw for Danny Glover was equally strong. Fresh from his success as Mister in "The Color Purple," he felt the role of Roger Murtaugh offered a whole new range of character expression and experience.

"Aside from the chance to work with Mel, which turned out to be pure pleasure, one of the reasons I jumped at this project was the family aspect. The chance to play intricate relationships and subtle humor that exist in every close family group was an intriguing challenge, as was playing a guy turning 50. Murtaugh's a little cranky about his age until everything he loves is threatened. His reawakening parallels Riggs'."

Both actors were signed by early spring, '86. Gibson and Glover then flew home to pack, and, returning to Los Angeles, began an intensive two months of physical training and preparation.

Meanwhile, the crucial role of the ruthless Joshua was settled when Gary Busey asked for a chance to read for the part. An established star since his Oscar-nominated performance in "The Buddy Holly Story," Busey hadn't auditioned for longer than he could remember.

"I had butterflies," he realized. "I'd never played a bad guy. And no one had seen me since I'd lost 60 pounds and got back into shape. But I decided to take the initiative in order to have the opportunity to work with Dick, Joel, Mel and Danny. I'm constantly looking for someone to pull the best performance out of me and any of those guys could. They even talked me into dying my hair!"

At the head of that group was the legendary DARLENE LOVE, who starred in the Broadway musical "Leader of the Pack," and who makes her dramatic acting debut as Murtaugh's wife, Trish. Love had been a longtime Donner favorite, most notably for her spectacular singing voice and for the place she holds in the history of rock 'n' roll. Young New York model and actress Traci Wolfe, whose only acting role had been a guest shot on "The Bill Cosby Show," won her first motion picture role as Roger Murtaugh's daughter, Rianne; MITCHELL RYAN ("North and South," "Fatal Vision," "Friends of Eddie Coyle") plays the General; and TOM ATKINS ("Blind Justice," "Halloween III," "Escape from New York") is cast as Hunsaker, Murtaugh's old Vietnam buddy with shadowy business connections. The two young Murtaugh children are played by DAMON HINES and EBONIE SMITH.

The Filmmaker Team

RICHARD DONNER, director of such films as "The Omen," "Inside Moves," "Ladyhawke," "The Goonies," and "Superman -- The Movie," jumped at the chance to direct "Lethal Weapon," his first action picture.

"The thing I loved," Donner explains, "was the opportunity to do an action film with a total sense of reality. I can't handle gratuitous violence so we focused the story on the relationships, which continually grew richer as Mel and Danny worked together. Violence never seems to have any humor, whereas action can have a lot of it.

"Riggs is a romantic character. He's a little bit larger than life. In the end, he finds a desire to live and that's a nice growth process."

Determining the look of the film fell to production designer J. MICHAEL RIVA ("The Color Purple, "The Goonies," "Buckaroo Banzai") and director of photography STEPHEN GOLDBLATT ("The Cotton Club," "Young Sherlock Holmes").

Says Riva: "Dick Donner's support as a director is astounding. We share the feeling that we would always try to imply violence rather than show it directly -- which is far more frightening anyway. We also hoped our cameraman would show L.A. the way it really is, not just shoot a travelogue."

Says Stephen Goldblatt of that particular challenge: "As an Englishman I thought this was a wonderful opportunity to photograph Los Angeles as it see it -- or as Richard Donner, Mike Riva and I saw it!"

Both production designer Riva and costume designer MARY MALIN believe in extensive research. Reflecting the collaborative nature of the project, each read widely on the CIA, cops and mercenaries, visited survivalist stores and met people who trained soldiers of fortune.

"They are very hard people to get hold of," Riva says, "though we did manage to meet a few, who told us some incredible stories. A couple were what they called 'shooters' in Vietnam -- snipers. That's essentially what Riggs did in the war."

As Malin explains it, "When you see Murtaugh's house or go to Riggs' trailer or his car or look in his wallet, you have to know where the man is coming from. By the time he finished, we even knew what he'd have in his top dresser drawer!"

The same detailed process was applied to the characters of Joshua and the General and the strange world of mercenaries. Playing against common expectation, Donner asked Malin to put the "mercs" in suits and ties to give each man a unique look and avoid the tradition camouflage gear.

In gathering their crew, director/producer Donner and producer Joel Silver combined their resources to call on a number of specialists to augment the creative team.

Silver, who has an impressive list of successful action pictures to his credit, including "Commando" and "48 HRS.," brought in weapons specialist MICHAEL PAPAC who had just completed work on Silver's production "The Predator." Papac used his extensive knowledge to help choose weapons for each principal character. He worked closely with Donner and Riva, who had requested old-fashioned solid weaponry, "the kind that people who do this in real life could rely on."

Stunt coordinator BOBBY BASS planned and supervised all phases of Gibson's and Glover's intense pre-production training -- physical conditioning, weight workouts, and weapons handling and safety. Bass administered the latter category according to the strict guidelines of the National Rifle Association. Bass also used his own military experiences to bring a greater depth of understanding to the Riggs character.

To familiarize the actors with the specialized skills and sensibilities acquired by undercover cops, arrangements were made for Gibson and Glover to spend time in the field accompanying working L.A.P.D. police officers. And throughout filming, technical advisors from the L.A.P.D. as well as the Sheriff's Department worked closely with Donner and the actors to ensure authenticity.

Special effects coordinator CHUCK GASPAR, with 26 years in the business and an extensive string of film credits, including "Heartbreak Ridge" (and seven other Clint Eastwood movies), "Altered States," "Ghostbusters" and "Blue Thunder," was the creative force behind planning, rigging, and executing crashes and "bullet hits." "The challenge was to add a little extra to every shot without being repetitious. What I like about Dick is that he asks for specifics yet gives you lots of room to create," says Gaspar.

A Fight to the Finish

From the early pre-production stages of "Lethal Weapon," Richard Donner wanted Mel Gibson's final fight sequence to be unique, yet also to make a strong statement about the characters involved.

Coincidentally, assistant director WILLIE SIMMONS had an avid interest in unusual forms of martial arts, and he invited several practitioners to the set to demonstrate for Donner. The result was the hiring of three technical advisors -- each a master of a particular martial arts style.

CEDRIC ADAMS was the first expert brought in. "Adams thought the best possible way to show just how lethal Riggs really is -- is to show his mastery of a form of martial arts never before seen onscreen," said Donner.

Adams taught the actors the movements of Capoeria a fighting art originally created by Angolans from West Africa to protect themselves against slave traders.

A second technical advisor, DENNIS NEWSOME, brought Jailhouse Rock to the fight sequence. An indigenous Black American fighting art, it was started in the 19th Century America, when slaves were first institutionalized and needed to defend themselves. It evolved secretly within the U.S. penal system, with regional styles reflecting the physical realities in specific institutions, e.g., Comstock style, San Quentin style, and others.

A form of Jiu-Jitsu developed by the Gracie family of Brazil was the third martial art form used. RORION GRACIE describes the technique as an on-the-ground level tactic and adds, "Our style has been undefeated."

The three advisors, along with stunt coordinator Bobby Bass -- himself a third degree black let in Judo -- wove their distinct martial arts disciplines together in an intricate piece of choreography that was first worked out on stunt doubles MIC ROGERS and SHANE DIXON.

Not only did the fight have to be staged so that no one would get hurt, it also had to be set up so that it could be captured effectively on film: once the camera rolled, the carefully planned moves would have to explode spontaneously.

The filming was spread over four complete nights, shooting from dusk to dawn, resulting in an edited sequence that would last minutes on screen. The extraordinary effort and stamina required to create this sort of illusion on film would stagger the imagination of most filmgoers. "You simply cannot get a fight with any power in a few takes," said director of photography Goldblatt. "You need a lot of material."

Night after chilly night, the actors -- drenched by water exploding from a burst fire hydrant (courtesy of Chuck Gaspar) and blown by enormous wind machines (standing in for a helicopter) -- performed the meticulously planned fight sequence in its entirety and then broke it down into tiny segments for the camera.

Struggling on ground that became muddier by the minute, the actors maintained intensity and focus, matched wits and responded to each other's prowess and shifting fighting styles. As Donner described it: "These guys meet as genuinely worthy opponents. They understand each other."

California All The Way

"Lethal Weapon" began principal photography in early August, 1986, shooting on locations throughout the Los Angeles area, as well as on the backlot facilities of The Burbank Studios.

Filming began in Long Beach, with helicopter camera work that would set the tone for the opening title sequence and the first spectacular stunt of the movie. The company then moved to Palos Verdes, Santa Monica, Studio City, West Hollywood, and Inglewood with one week out-of-town in El Mirage, an enormous dry lake bed outside Victorville, California.

Principal photography was completed in mid-November.

A Special Note of Tribute

Shortly after completion of principal photography on "Lethal Weapon," actor/stuntman DAR ROBINSON died in a tragic accident on the set of another film shooting in Page, Arizona.

An old friend of Donner and stunt team members on "Lethal Weapon," Robinson had also coached the principal actors and day players who performed their own stunts.

Working closely with stunt coordinator Bobby Bass, Robinson contributed enormously to the breathtaking action in "Lethal Weapon." "There is not very much I can tell you about Dar Robinson that most people don't already know," says Bass. "The courage of this man and what he brought technologically to the stunt community, is phenomenal."

Robinson was an innovator, known for his meticulous planning and precise mathematical projections. He held many world records and invented new techniques and new equipment, including life saving equipment for the fire department. He was an early tester of the air bag system and designed a three-stage air bag for use in the picture.

Late in the film, Robinson appears as a mercenary who attempts to block the escape of Gibson and Glover from a high scaffolding. When Gibson turns and shoots him, Dar, wearing a harness, falls headfirst towards the cement floor. The effect is harrowing.

He also appears in the scene where Gibson attempts to talk down a potential suicide jumper. Gibson, as Riggs, handcuffs himself to the man and controls the jump. For Robinson and Gibson's double, Mic Rogers, it meant a tandem fall from the top of the 7-story Emser Building on Santa Monica Blvd.

A gymnastics enthusiast, Robinson was born in 1947 in Van Nuys, California. He landed his first job at the age of twenty, doing acrobatics in a giant milk bottle for a commercial. He later did stunt work on "Paint Your Wagon" and doubled for Steve McQueen in a cliff jump for "Papillon."

Holder of 21 stunt records, Robinson is listed in the 1986 Guinness Book of World Records as the highest paid stuntman ($100,000 for a jump from the 1,000-foot-high CN Tower in Toronto in November, 1979) for the movie "High Point." He opened a parachute 300 feet from the ground.

Among his "World's First" records, Robinson was the first to sky dive out of a cargo plane at 12,000 feet while "driving" a small sports car.

Miraculously, Robinson never broke a single bone in his 19 years of television and movie work.

Among his admirers was Burt Reynolds, who used him extensively in "Sharkey's Machine" and "Stick." "In terms of sheer courage, said Reynolds, "Dar had no peer."