Known to eschew Hollywood power restaurants, preferring a dinner of pizza followed by ice cream bars, Shane Black has nevertheless become one of the highest-paid screenwriters in motion picture history, particularly specializing in the action-adventure genre.

Originally intending to become an actor while at UCLA, Black was encouraged to try his hand at scriptwriting by a long-time friend, director Fred Dekker. At age 24, he wrote a screenplay which won him an agent and several meetings at studios, but instead of purchasing his script, the moguls wanted to give him assignments instead.