When you see Shane Black’s name attached to a movie, you can guarantee at least a handful of things will definitely happen; creatively-worded and foul-mouthed insults will be thrown back and forth, there’s going to be witty banter from the first minute to the last, at least one trope will be deliberately deconstructed, and Christmas iconography is going to be absolutely everywhere.
Black has decked the halls with almost his entire filmography, ranging from Lethal Weapon and The Long Kiss Goodnight to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Nice Guys, while he even delivered the closest thing the Marvel Cinematic Universe has to a festive film with Iron Man 3.
New book The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe via CBR finds the writer, director, producer and occasional actor opining on his love of all things Christmas, and why he decided to bring it to the biggest franchise in the business.
“It creates its own little encapsulated event in time. In the same way you go see one of these disaster films, you set up all these people together in this town where the ‘volcano’ is about to explode. Christmas bands together and cements a story. You feel like there’s a common unity among all the people in it. It’s just something [audiences] constantly notice in the background. It represents a flavor, and there is a sense that ‘We are all in it together.'”
Having helped rejuvenate Robert Downey Jr.’s career with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the leading man was pivotal to landing Black the Iron Man 3 gig, and the threequel is much better than certain sections of the internet would have you believe, no matter how polarizing the Trevor Slattery twist continues to be.