“I didn’t really know I was allowed to be a screenwriter, so I didn’t consider that as a career or life option growing up Southeast of England,” says Drew Pearce. “People I knew didn’t go to University and they definitely didn’t work in movies.”
“Throughout my life, I have shown a staggering lack of imagination in thinking I can do these jobs. But when I meet a person who does the job, I do think, ‘Well, if they can do it, I can do it,’” he jokes. After exploring paths as a musician, a magazine writer, and the comic scene, he eventually created a sitcom in the UK.
The show received mixed reviews in the UK, but found its way to America where it found some traction. “I just so happened to do a show about off-duty superheroes, set in a pub, the same year that Iron Man came out, so those things dove-tailed.” The series was called No Heroics.
Thanks to the show, this eventually led to a meeting with Kevin Feige (President of Marvel Studios) and work on projects such as Iron Man 3, Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Lego Marvel’s Avengers, Hotel Artemis, Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw, and most recently, The Fall Guy.
“Kevin Feige forced us together,” he says about his collaboration with Shane Black. “Legendary screenwriter Shane Black did not want me as a co-writer,” he jokes. “It was an arranged marriage that could have been incredibly short-lived. Shane was the Director so he had the power to fire me, but I had grown up with Shane’s movies and there’s a huge part of what I do.”
“But honestly, there was an organic exchange of tones. He liked that I came from comedy and I liked how American his stuff is.” Black’s credits also include Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Nice Guys, and The Predator.
“Weirdly, like two characters in a Shane Black movie — the grizzled old veteran and the arrogant younger copy — we learned from each other and a bond was formed.” That said, over the last 14 years, Pearce has written or worked on 60+ movies, including unmade specs, but he’s only known for the action-comedies listed above.
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