I just saw this post tonight… Three years after it was originally posted!!!

I am a huge Shane Black fan and I would love to read this article, however the link doesn’t work and the LA Times doesn’t have this story in their archive.

If anyone has a copy of this story or a link to this particular story elsewhere on the internet, I would truly appreciate it! Thanks in advance!

Thanx.

Another one of the patented “Shane” writing essentials is his reversals anecdote. I won’t ruin it by writing it out here because the only way to experience it for the first time is to hear Shane tell it. If you’ve heard it before, you’re probably getting a chuckle just thinking about it. He’s just a great storyteller whether it be on page or in person.

Best of luck to Shane. He deserves it.

I love it. And it also encapsulates what Shane Black’s writing is all about: just when you think a story beat has reached its pinnacle, he always adds another beat to top it.

A falling out with his best friend in the mid-’90s only added to his guilt. The man, whom he’d first met at UCLA, had decided he wanted to be a writer too, but his career never caught fire. Black said “he was very angered by my success,” and several months after they stopped speaking Black received a letter. “[It] said, ‘I still hate you, I don’t want to see you anymore, but here’s a bank account number. Wire as much as you think our friendship is worth into it.’ “