10. How It All Began
Mike Shayne was the creation of one Brett Halliday, a writer whose works were popular for their time. Shayne appeared in
"more than 70 novels, a dozen movies, a TV series, radio dramas, comic books, and the long-running Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine". Yet until Hard Case Crime reprinted his novel, "Murder Is My Business" back in 2010, hardly anyone had heard of Halliday or his creation for that matter. But Shane Black had heard of him and was inspired by another work of his, "Bodies Are Where You Find Them". This book would be the genesis for the story of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, albeit with some modernizing and a more comedic bent than Halliday might have liked. Still, one could argue that despite the lighter (but not by much) tone of the film, Halliday would have found it to be quite fun to watch.