Sebastian Carr (Hothead), Director Shane Black, Cinematographer Philippe Rousselot and Rupert Raineri (Beckler) on set of Play Dirty Jasin Boland/Prime/Amazon Content Services LLC Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text Shane Black takes nothing for granted after four decades of moviemaking. The Pittsburgh native may have been the wunderkind screenwriter of the '80s and the filmmaker who helped revive Robert Downey Jr.'s career with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang en route to Iron Man, but he still treats every at-bat like it's his last. Black has just returned to screens this week with the Mark Wahlberg-led, Play Dirty. The Amazon Prime Video action-thriller is based on Donald E. Westlake's (via his pseudonym Richard Stark) "Parker" novels, and Wahlberg is the latest notable actor to fill the shoes of the hard-boiled master thief, joining the likes of Lee Marvin, Jim Brown, Robert Duvall, Mel Gibson and Jason Statham. Related Stories Movies 'Play Dirty' Review: Mark Wahlberg Lacks the Spark to Sell a Sardonic Master Criminal in Shane Black's Ho-Hum Heist Caper Movies Summer League Film Festival, Backed by Mark Wahlberg and Kevin Garnett's Studios, Unveils Winners "There's a lot of young guys out there. There's a lot of hot shots who you'd think would be doing Play Dirty. And the fact that I still get to bring something to the party, I'm eternally grateful for that," Black tells The Hollywood Reporter. "So it's up to me now, as a pact with the audience, to try to keep delivering something interesting and new. I've got to earn my seat." The title of Play Dirty is one that's been in Black's back pocket since the late '80s. After the success of his feature screenwriting debut, Lethal Weapon (1987), he wrote a much darker sequel script that was ultimately rejected by the powers that be. The title of that discarded work was none other than Play Dirty, and like the majority of his screenplay, it fell by the wayside until now. "When we were trying to do Westlake's character Parker again, we needed a title, and I had a producer with me who owned the title Play Dirty. I like repurposing things, I like pulling strings, and I like having a continuity that forms a shape," Black shares. Black recognized that every generation has a Parker movie starring one of the aforementioned actors, and so he decided to create a take for this generation, which meant putting modern technology in the hands of the master criminal who originated in the '60s. That said, Black still opted for a minimalist approach to today's tech, as opposed to the high-tech gadgets of James Bond and Ethan Hunt. "You will not see a single frame in Play Dirty where someone is Tom-Cruising it, descending on wires in a black outfit with laser-vision goggles. That's technology that we didn't want for Parker," Black says. "He's a psychological guy, a plodder. He gets things done in a very methodical, measured way, and he's just relentless and dogged in a very old-school kind of way." In 1986, Black consulted on another script for his Lethal Weapon producer, Joel Silver, and that position ultimately led to his casting as Hawkins in John McTiernan's Predator (1987). Black's front row seat essentially anointed him as the first fan of the Predator franchise, and three decades later, he got the chance to helm his own installment, The Predator (2018). Unfortunately, the movie didn't land critically or commercially, and while there was plenty of reporting in regard to studio overreach, Black has opted not to point fingers. In any event, he's thrilled that filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg has course-corrected the franchise with 2022's Prey, June's Predator: Killer of Killers and November's Predator: Badlands. (The whispers around town surrounding the latter are very positive.) "Dan Trachtenberg saved that franchise. His work is impeccable. I saw Prey, and all I could do was say, 'Sir, my hat's off,'" Black says. "[Prey] was a really great mythic take. I feel like an audience member now, and I'm just happy to see whatever he does. So, yeah, I'm happy that the franchise is still humming, and he's the right shepherd for it." Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Black also discusses how the box office disappointment of his critically lauded The Nice Guys (2016) factors into his first streaming release with Play Dirty. Then he reveals which unproduced project of his he still hopes to relaunch someday. *** The very first R-rated movie I saw as a young child was Lethal Weapon 2. I then saw the first one a short while after that. Well, apparently, the original title of your Lethal Weapon 2 script was Play Dirty before the assignment changed hands. Did you only repurpose the title here? Or is there more of your unused Lethal Weapon 2 material in Play Dirty? No, just the title. When we were trying to do [Don