Ready Player One screenwriter Zak Penn has explained how a reference to Last Action Hero ended up in the movie – despite his wishes. Ready Player One is based on the bestselling book by Ernest Cline, and the story finds the main character exploring a vast virtual reality world dubbed the OASIS in search of three keys. Both the book – and subsequent movie adaptation – are littered with pop culture references, including Back To The Future, Alien and The Iron Giant.
Last Action Hero was a 1993 meta-comedy that focused on a teenager being sucked into an action movie. It was Arnold Schwarzenegger's first movie since Terminator 2: Judgment Day and was expected to be a huge hit. In a case of poor timing though it came out around the same time as Jurassic Park, which would go on to crush it at the box office; Last Action Hero's bad reviews didn't help either.
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Last Action Hero has since become a cult movie, with fans coming to appreciate the movie's meta tone. The movie was also the first writing credit for Ready Player One screenwriter Zak Penn, and in a new interview with Yahoo! he explains how a reference ended up in the movie. During an action scene, the main characters race outside a cinema showing Jack Slater III, the name of Schwarzenegger's fictional franchise in Last Action Hero. Penn explains he didn't really want to include a nod to the movie since Spielberg was avoiding overt references to his own work, but Ernest Cline went behind his back:
If Steven’s not referencing his movies, it seems kind of pathetic for me to reference mine. But Ernie didn’t listen to me, and he went around my back to the production designer at Industrial Light & Magic.
Penn admits he's glad it wound up in the movie, stating "I have to admit, I was pretty psyched when I saw it. Because I didn’t do it, and I didn’t feel responsible for it.”
Last Action Hero and Jurassic Park were the great rivals of 1993, and history knows which movie won the battle. In what might be a friendly piece of shade on Spielberg's part, the T-Rex from Jurassic Park immediately makes an appearance in Ready Player One following the Jack Slater III nod.
Last Action Hero proved to be a disappointing first Hollywood experience for Penn, whose script was heavily rewritten into a movie he didn't particularly like. Penn moved on the from the experience, later working on the X-Men series and The Avengers. In a way Ready Player One sees the writer coming full circle on his first movie, which has - for better or worse - become a small part of pop culture itself.
More: X-Men 2 Was Originally Going To Adapt The Phoenix Saga
Source: Yahoo!
