Whenever somebody gets around to a full retrospective of Robert Downey Jr.’s career, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang could arguably be viewed as the single most pivotal moment, with Shane Black’s directorial debut marking the middle ground between the embryonic stages of his comeback and his full-blown ascendancy to the very top of the Hollywood A-list.
The Lethal Weapon creator’s labyrinthine crime drama has all the hallmarks of his work, from a festive setting to the whip-smart barbs being traded between two lead characters that bounce off each other perfectly. RDJ plays Harry Lockhart, a small-time criminal who stumbles into a movie audition while evading the cops and ends up winning the role, which sees him shadowing Val Kilmer’s private investigator Perry van Shrike before the duo comes across a very real conspiracy.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is one of the greatest Christmas movies of the 21st Century, as well as arguably the most severely underrated and painfully underappreciated noir thriller of the modern era. Downey Jr.’s performance caught the eye of Jon Favreau and convinced him that the actor would be a great fit for Tony Stark, while it also sparked the friendship between the leading man and Shane Black that ultimately ended up with the latter being hired to direct Iron Man 3.
Now, insider Daniel Richtman is claiming that RDJ is hoping to do a sequel to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and while he offers no further details, the first chapter definitely ended with the door left wide open. Not only that, but with both Downey Jr. and Black in desperate need of a hit after Dolittle and The Predator, respectively, bombed, there are definitely worse ideas out there, especially with the pair being much bigger names now than they were fifteen years ago.