According to a 30 May 1993 NYT article, Zak Penn and Adam Leff began writing their first feature film screenplay, then titled Extremely Violent, in Mar 1991. By Oct of that year, they secured representation from agent Chris Moore at Intertalent. Moore presented the script to Carolco Pictures, which produced such successful Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicles as Total Recall (1990, see entry) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991, see entry). However, Carolco passed on the project. To prevent negative word of mouth, Intertalent renamed the script The Last Action Hero and sent it to five producers on 1 Nov 1991. The 8 Nov 1991 DV named Joel Silver at Warner Bros., Paul Schiff at Twentieth Century Fox, and Sam Raimi at Universal among those who were approached. The offer attracted the interest of Steve Roth at Columbia Pictures and Columbia’s sister studio, Tri-Star Pictures, both owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. Although Sony “frowned upon” the competition, Columbia and Tri-Star engaged in a six-day bidding war, and on 7 Nov 1991, Columbia won the property, offering $100,000 upfront, or $350,000 if the film were produced. Arnold Schwarzenegger felt the story had a “great concept,” but was not “executed professionally,” and added it to a pile of ten projects he was considering for various studios. Whichever role he chose, Schwarzenegger required a $15-million salary plus a percentage of the profits, but he liked The Last Action Hero because it could be filmed near his home in Los Angeles, CA, and he felt that a PG-13 action-comedy would help “soften his image.”
       Although the actor had not yet given his commitment, Columbia was keen to address his concerns and hired Lethal Weapon (1987, see entry) writer Shane Black to rewrite the film. Black gave $250,000 of his $1 million salary to his University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) film school friend, David Arnott, to serve as co-writer. They began their revisions on 25 Feb 1992, making significant changes to nearly everything except the basic premise. The title was shortened to Last Action Hero, and Penn and Leff were demoted to “story by” credit. While Black and Arnott worked, Columbia offered the original Penn-Leff script to director John McTiernan, who turned it down. A 20 Apr 1992 Var brief indicated that Robert Zemeckis was also under consideration to direct, but in Jul 1992, McTiernan changed his mind. Still unhappy with the last third of Black and Arnott’s eighty-five page rewrite, Schwarzenegger said he would agree to star if Columbia hired William Goldman, who made uncredited rewrites on Schwarzenegger’s Twins (1988, see entry), to add an “emotional core” to the relationship between “Jack Slater” and “Danny Madigan.” After an initial refusal, Goldman accepted Columbia’s offer of $750,000 for four weeks work, securing Schwarzenegger in the process. Some of Goldman’s contributions included changing the “demonic projectionist” to a friendly old man; rewriting the secondary villain, “Benedict,” as the main antagonist; and lowering Danny’s age from fifteen to eleven years old, since Schwarzenegger did not want to play opposite another “tough teen-ager,” as he had recently done in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Goldman’s script was modified slightly by Black and Arnott, while Larry Ferguson contributed dialogue. Charles Dance wrote many of his own lines, and an unnamed female writer was hired to add four scenes between Danny and his mother, played by Mercedes Ruehl. Screenwriting fees allegedly totaled more than $2 million.
       As reported in a 15 Jun 1993 DV news item, several planned cameos were not included in the final film. Alec Baldwin was unable to shoot his appearance as the nephew of crime boss “Tony Vivaldi” after deciding to attend the inauguration of U.S. President Bill Clinton, while a scheduling change prevented the inclusion of McTiernan’s friend, Sam Neill, who was supposed to appear among the dinosaur statues at the La Brea Tar Pits in a comical reference to his role in Jurassic Park (1993, see entry). Clint Eastwood was hired to play a police officer in the film-within-a-film, Jack Slater IV, but the scene was never shot. Although Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone were also rumored to appear, Stallone’s name and likeness are displayed on a poster for Terminator 2: Judgment Day, alluding to his rivalry with Schwarzenegger as competing action stars. Danny DeVito has an uncredited role as the voice of the cartoon cat detective, “Whiskers.” Despite reports that Tina Turner received a multimillion-dollar salary for her brief role as “the mayor,” the 1 Mar 1993 LADN revealed she was paid $5,000 for one day of work.
       According to a 3 Nov 1992 HR production chart, principal photography began 2 Nov 1992. The opening sequence of Jack Slater IV was shot at Temple Street and Beaudry Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. A 25 Nov 1992 DV item stated that the special effects explosion broke the windows of several neighboring homes, which Columbia agreed to repair. Production also ran into problems when they faced what the 11 Dec 1992 HR called “blunt community resistance” to nighttime shooting in the Mulholland hillside area. For the remaining two weeks at the location, filmmakers agreed to adjust their hours so work would be completed by midnight. An article in the 23 Dec 1992 Grunion Gazette reported that several sets were built on the roof of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Long Beach, CA, which served as the location for the film’s funeral scene. The 6 Jan 1993 Long Beach Press-Telegram issued an announcement seeking background actors for the “New York City” movie premiere of Jack Slater IV, which took place at the Long Beach Civic Light Opera at 300 Ocean Boulevard. Volunteers donated their paychecks to the Civic Light Opera. Exteriors of the premiere sequences were shot over eight days at Times Square in New York City. According to the 1 Mar 1993 HR, production shut down traffic in the area and affected more than 700 businesses. A 17 Mar 1993 HR brief claimed that filming ended early after inclement weather in the New York area disrupted the shooting schedule. However, production notes in AMPAS library files indicate that principal photography concluded in Los Angeles on 1 Apr 1993.
       A 15 Oct 1992 DV article noted that Last Action Hero was the first project undertaken by special effects house R/Greenberg & Associates since the company opened operations in Los Angeles in Sep 1992. The 28 May 1993 DV indicated Columbia only allowed enough time for a ten-week post-production schedule, meaning that crews worked at least six, eighteen-hour days per week. To relieve stress, Columbia hired an in-house masseuse named Kelli Fisher, who is not credited onscreen. As a result, rumors began circulating that the film would not be completed in time for its 18 Jun 1993 domestic release, and that the studio had decided to push back the date to distance itself from the opening of Universal’s Jurassic Park, which had been moved to 11 Jun 1993. Columbia repeatedly denied these claims, and insisted the studio would continue its preparations as planned.
       Such plans included an expensive and ambitious publicity campaign that began before the film was even shot. A 27 Oct 1992 DV news item reported that Columbia had already filmed a brief teaser trailer that contained a $300,000 pyrotechnics sequence, and may have cost as much as $500,000. The 8 Mar 1993 DV stated that a four-minute trailer was also screened for exhibitors at NATO/ShoWest in Las Vegas, NV. Promotional tie-ins included a $12—$14 million deal with Burger King restaurants and a Mattel action figure line, according to the 20 Nov 1992 HR. On 3 Mar 1993, WSJ announced that Columbia won a bid with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to advertise Last Action Hero on the fuselage and booster rockets of an unmanned commercial space mission, set to launch in May 1993. The studio paid $500,000, beating out thousands of other companies for the deal, which also included a 900-telephone number from American Telephone & Telegraph Co. allowing callers to leave a message that would be sent to space on digital tape. Amid strong public opposition, the 6 May 1993 DV reported that the launch had been delayed until Aug 1993—almost two months after the film’s domestic release. The launch was later canceled.
       Despite these efforts, negative press ultimately damaged the film’s chances for success. According to a 25 Jun 1993 LAT news item, Columbia threatened to boycott the LAT for publishing a story about an “unsuccessful” test screening in Pasadena, CA. Columbia vehemently denied the screening ever took place, and demanded the reporter be banned from writing any future stories about the studio. The LAT refused, and the boycott was eventually dropped. The 7 May 1993 HR stated that another test screening took place at the Lakewood Center multiplex in Long Beach, with supposedly similar results. Although re-shoots had been scheduled for that same week, Columbia insisted the extra scenes and possible last-minute script revisions were not a result of poor audience feedback.
       The budget also became a subject of heated debate: Columbia released a final production cost of $47.5 million, but various sources speculated figures ranging from $77--$82.5 million. In his 23 Feb 1994 DV column, Jon Evan Frook theorized that the studio may have accrued cost overruns by pushing the accelerated post-production schedule. On 30 Aug 1993, HR reported that Sony targeted producer Steve Roth as part of an internal investigation to determine whether corporate funds given to Steve Roth Productions for Last Action Hero had been improperly allocated for prostitution or drugs. The article alleged that women working for “Hollywood madam” Heidi Fleiss may have appeared as background actors in a scene and were listed as “‘masseuse expenses” in the film’s official budget. Although Roth claimed to have no direct involvement with the production of the picture, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) uncovered a $1,200 check, made out to “cash,” that contained Roth’s signature. The outcome of the investigation could not be determined.
       Items in the 15 and 16 Jun 1993 DV reported that the Los Angeles and New York City premieres took place 13 and 16 Jun 1993. The Los Angeles event cost more than $500,000 and included simultaneous screenings at the adjacent Village and Bruin theatres in Westwood, CA. The 28 Jun 1993 Var indicated that sneak previews held in 1,308 theaters on Thursday, 17 Jun 1993 earned approximately $1.1 million in advance ticket sales. Although Columbia expected to bring in at least $20 million from 2,300 theaters, the 21 Jun 1993 DV reported an opening weekend gross of just $15.2 million. Columbia blamed low numbers on the juggernaut success of Jurassic Park, which targeted a similar audience demographic and had quickly become the highest grossing film of all time. However, a 29 Jun 1993 DV box-office chart indicated that Last Action Hero fell to fourth place in its second week, losing a substantial percentage in ticket sales as it played against Tri-Star’s Sleepless in Seattle (see entry) and Warner Bros.’ Dennis the Menace (see entry), both released 25 Jun 1993. The 29 Jun 1993 HR reported that Columbia offered to “sneak” screenings of its upcoming Clint Eastwood picture, In the Line of Fire (see entry), to persuade exhibitors to keep Last Action Hero in theaters. According to the 23 Feb 1994 DV, an article published in the 28 Feb 1994 issue of the New Yorker claimed the film’s high production and marketing costs left Sony with an “unrecouped balance” of more than $124 million. This figure, taken from an internal profit-and-loss statement from the studio, did not account for home video release or foreign sales, but both Columbia and Sony stated that the sum was “ludicrous and false.”
       As stated in the Oct 1993 issue of Popular Science, Last Action Hero was the first film to showcase the new Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS) system when it screened in five specially-equipped theaters in Los Angeles and New York City.
       A 14 May 1993 Screen International item reported that Columbia president Mark Canton had intended to produce a sequel for the summer of 1994, but plans were canceled following the film’s disastrous critical and box-office reception.
       End credits state: “Filmed at Sony Pictures Studios, Culver City, California”; “Special Thanks to: California Film Commission, Beth B. Kennedy, Executive Director; Entertainment Industry Affairs, Charles Weisenberg, Director; City of Los Angeles, Motion Picture and Television Division; California Highway Patrol; City of Los Angeles Fire Department; Culver City Fire Department; Culver City Police Department; Hyatt Regency, Long Beach, CA.; The City of Long Beach; Long Beach Fire Department; Los Angeles Police Department; Don and Dee Stanley; New York City Police Department and TV Unit/SOD, Lt. Milton Maldonado, Commanding Officer; Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting, Richard Brick, Commissioner; 42nd Street Development Project Inc., T.S.P.S., Times Square Property; Le Parker Meridien, New York; Blockbuster Video; Reebok International, Ltd.; Tony Lama Boots”; “Total Recall © 1990 Carolco, all rights reserved”; “© Bogart, under license by Curtis Management Group, Indianapolis, IN”; “Terminator 2: Judgment Day © 1991 Carolco, all rights reserved”; “Cartoon clips property of Warner Bros., all rights reserved”; “Posters from Troma Films, Inc.”; “Additional footage courtesy of The Arsenio Hall Show and Paramount Pictures Corporation”; “The Seventh Seal, courtesy of AB Svensk Filmindustri and Ingmar Bergman”; “Hamlet, a Two Cities Film Production, courtesy of Rank Film Distributors Limited”; and, “The Twilight Zone, courtesy of CBS Inc.”